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.
