Bengal BJP Chief advocates new land policy for large-scale industrialisation

New Delhi: West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya on Tuesday advocated a new land policy to facilitate large-scale industrialisation and assured investors of a "fearless" environment in the state.

Addressing members of a business chamber for the first time after the BJP came to power in West Bengal, Bhattacharya also spoke about the possibility of scrapping the Urban Land Ceiling Act and introducing contract farming, a major demand from industries and corporate houses.

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“Whether it is the Urban Land Ceiling issue or our stand on investment, we made our party position clear,” he added.

Bhattacharya said the proposed land policy would take cues from successful models in states such as Haryana and Maharashtra.

Contract farming is currently not permitted in West Bengal, and this move may attract large business houses to invest significantly in the agriculture and food sectors.

At the annual general meeting of BNCCI, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP said the state has "no future" without large industries and asserted that political interference and land-related hurdles had long discouraged investment in West Bengal.

“We have talent and capital here. Yet industries did not come because the right mindset and environment for industrialisation had not been created. Our job will be to create that atmosphere,” Bhattacharya added.

Bringing investment to West Bengal is not an impossible task, he said, adding that the new government will ensure a proper law and order situation.

“Problems related to land ceiling are a major obstacle, as 85 percent of land here (in the state) is fragmented. We are thinking about it and may remove those hurdles,” he said, assuring the business community of decisive action from the new government.

He acknowledged that land reforms of the past had turned the landless into owners.

“Unfortunately, the state failed to reach the next stage of a cooperative movement,” he said.

“Nature has given West Bengal everything. We have forests, rivers, seacoast, ports and international borders with three countries. Seven states are connected to us. This state is immensely rich,” he said.

Bhattacharya said 82 percent of land holdings in West Bengal belong to small farmers and stressed the need for industry participation for the state's economic transformation.

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“Invest without fear. There will be no obstruction over land and no political interference,” the state BJP chief told the business community.

“We will end party interference in every sphere — from academics to business — and remove such control from society,” Bhattacharya said.

Bhattacharya, however, clarified that he was not speaking on behalf of the government and that he was not part of the BJP dispensation.

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