Author: Subrata Nagchoudhury &
Bidyut Roy
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: September 2, 2005
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=77392
BENGAL: Farmers in Indonesian Salim
project area sold huge chunks of land to promoters; Minister says rest
unused
When CPM veteran Jyoti Basu said
yesterday that there was ''absolutely nothing unfair'' and ''all land issues
had been sorted out'' in Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's investment
plans for Indonesia's Salim Group in West Bengal, it was not without reason.
What Basu left unsaid was that out
of the 5,100 acres in the city's South 24-Parganas suburbs being earmarked
for the Salim Group's ''Industrial Park'' and "Health City''-this has had
Buddhadeb's Left Front partners and rivals raising a storm, saying farmers'
land was being snatched-huge chunks, including agriculture land, has already
exchanged hands. Several farmers have sold their land to promoters and
developers long before Buddhadeb announced the project.
While there is no official estimate
of how much land has been sold, Ananda Biswas, a CPM candidate in the last
Assembly elections and now a key member of the CPM's South 24-Parganas
district committee office-bearers, says that almost 4000 acres in that
area have been sold to builders.
How much of this will fall in the
project area isn't clear but a ground check by The Indian Express shows
that promoters and developers are racing for more and more land in the
area, converting them into unplanned housing colonies and residential projects.
If the CPM Politburo discusses
Buddhadeb's proposed Indonesian FDI in West Bengal and talks about farmers'
land being taken over, it would help if they talk to their comrades on
the ground.
Driving through Bishnupur Block
I-the Salim project includes this-you see a never-ending row of signposts:
Sun City, Capricorn Grove, Jayapriya Park, Falguni Abasan, Sreema Housing,
Rainbow city, Tribeni, Indra Kanan and Shristhi.
At some places, plots are being
demarcated. At other places, flyash is being dumped to raise plots. Elsewhere,
housing complexes have come up and resorts are already doing business on
either side of the metalled road.Land here began changing hands almost
a decade ago-not one comrade, residents recall, ever raised a whisper of
protest. And when land-use conversions began, the first promoters showed
up. In the last two years, there has been a dramatic rise in real estate
business with the city's southern limits expanding.
Tapan Mondal of Kulerdari gram panchayat
in Bishnupur says his son works as a watchman at a housing project site.
''Salim or no Salim, promoters are picking up farmer land. And now these
promoters will try to stall the Salim project. Because it doesn't suit
them. They are the ones who will give Buddhababu a headache, it won't be
us,'' said Mondal.
At Baruipur, Asghar Sheikh is ready
to sell his land. ''For generations, we stuck to our land in the hope that
our condition will improve. That never happened. At least the government
will have an obligation to fulfill once it takes away our land. Let there
be some industries here. It can't get any worse,'' said Asghar.
Admitting that a section of party
workers are now involved in this real estate business, a CPM district committee
leader said that some promoters had acquired huge tracts, split them into
blocks of 200-300 acres.
CPI(M)'s South 24 Parganas district
secretary Santimoy Bhattacharya said the party committee was busy identifying
land for the proposed investment projects. The committee has also asked
the government to put checks on further sale of land in certain blocks
to keep out land sharks and end speculation.
Like Bhattacharya, Kanti Ganguly,
the state's Sunderbans Development Minister, said there was ''absolutely
no doubt and confusion about the proposed project'' on the ground. He said
thousand of acres in Mohanpur, Moukhali, Heria, Amratola, Sherpur, Andharmanik,
Rashkhali, Panakua, Sirakol, Usti, East Uttarbagh, Bonhooghly, Jantala,
Bamongachi, Talpukur were lying unutilised.
