‘Talk to farmers to avoid another Singur’

With Tata Motors’ Singur experience still fresh in people’s mind, industrialists and businessmen keen on investing in Bengal believe that communication with farmers was necessary during land acquistion.

With Tata Motors’ Singur experience still fresh in people’s mind, industrialists and businessmen keen on investing in Bengal believe that communication with farmers was necessary during land acquistion. It is important that attempts be made to understand the aspirations of the locals from whom land is acquired.

“Whether the land to be acquired is 100 acres or 1,000 acres is not the criterion. Land is like an umbilical cord to the farmers and there is a fear psychosis of what the family will do after selling their land,” said Biswadeep Gupta, Joint Managing Director and CEO of JSW Bengal Steel.

He was speaking at a panel discussion “Industrialisation in West Bengal — The Way Forward”, organised by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. The panelists discussed on measures to revive the investment and industrialisation scenario in the state after Tata Motors had to withdraw its Nano car factory from Singur following protests by locals.

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Sumantra Chowdhury, state transport secretary and former CEO of WBIDC, said the experience of setting up industries has not been very encouraging.

“We have to look at smaller chunks of land that are available or can be made easily available. Even if it is 25 acres or 50 acres, we can set up an industry and show what can be done for the locals. This can be a model for larger acquisitions,” he added.