West Bengal is preparing to take a more active role in securing land for industrial investors, with the state government likely to buy plots directly from landowners and transfer them to companies, a senior official told The Telegraph. The proposed West Bengal land policy marks a departure from the previous government’s hands-off approach and could be announced alongside the state’s industrial incentive policy on November 5.
Under the proposed model, the government would purchase land from owners and make the parcels available to investors. It would also assist companies that want to buy land directly. A separate land policy, including the details of compensation and rehabilitation, is expected to be released later, according to the official quoted by The Telegraph.
The move is intended to address one of Bengal’s most persistent barriers to industrial investment: obtaining contiguous parcels of land without triggering the political and social conflict associated with compulsory acquisition. Land acquisition has remained particularly sensitive in the state since the Singur and Nandigram movements, which contributed to the end of 34 years of Left Front rule.
The previous Trinamool Congress government had said it would not acquire land for industry after coming to power in 2011 on the strength of those anti-acquisition movements. It asked investors to purchase land directly from farmers. The state did buy land for infrastructure projects, including roads and bridges, but did not adopt the same approach for industrial projects.
The proposed policy is expected to include a more generous package for landowners. A senior official said the previous direct-purchase policy offered 1.5 times the market rate, while the new government intended to make the compensation package more attractive. The policy would also contain a separate rehabilitation framework for bargadars, or share-croppers, whose rights and livelihoods may be affected when agricultural land changes hands.
The government’s approach reflects the urgency of attracting investment and generating employment while avoiding the political risks of a formal acquisition process. Officials cited in the report said the direct-purchase route was preferred because it could support industrial development without requiring the government to enter the more contentious field of compulsory acquisition.
However, the model will not remove the central difficulty of assembling land. One official cautioned that direct purchase could not guarantee that owners would agree to sell. Industrial units generally require contiguous land, and assembling such parcels could be difficult in a densely populated and politically active state. The same official also said the government had not abandoned land pooling, although that option would take longer to implement.
The immediate test for the policy will be whether it can provide investors with usable, contiguous sites while making compensation and rehabilitation credible for landowners and share-croppers. The industrial incentive policy is expected to be unveiled on November 5, with the separate land policy to follow.
