Ever since trouble at Singur erupted late last year over the issue of land transfer, there was a feeling that perhaps industry can never happen in Bengal. Incidents at Nandigram made matters worse, and economists and planners who knew the dire necessity of industry in Bengal almost wrote off the state’s chance of reviving its industrial fortune.
2 things happened thereafter. One, clashes in Nandigram continued even after CM officially announced that there would be no chemical hub there. This clearly explained that even though there was no longer any issue of land transfer, the trouble in Nandigram continued because it was more of a political war to capture ‘turf’ than real concern about farmers’ loosing land.
Second, in last month’s mini panchayat and block-level elections at various places across the state, the ruling LF did reasonably well. This came as a surprise to many people, and even to the veteran CPM patriarch, Jyoti Basu. He admitted as much.
From these 2 happenings, it’ll not be wrong to draw conclusion that land transfer issue hasn’t turned up as big as it is made out. It helped that the CM relentlessly traveled across the state in the interim, putting it across the people that there is no way other than letting industry to happen in order to create jobs for millions of aspirants in the coming days.
The first sign of people of rural Bengal feeling the need of industry is seen at Bood Bood in Burdwan disrict where farmers and unemployed youth have on their own written to the district magistrate offering their land for industry. The land they want to give up measures as much as 2500 acres.
Nearly similar pattern is seen at Salboni where the Jindals are to set up an integrated steel plant, and Kharagpur where the Tatas will set up a heavy vehicles plant. Salboni and Kharagpur are in Paschim Medinipur district, which is adjacent to Purba Medinipur district where Nandigram lies.
Though it’s still early days, but if the trend continues it’ll mean that the government has been able to convince people at the grassroots about the need to give up land for creation of industry.
Leave a Reply