Food first,industry later: Bengal goes back to basics

With its land acquisition policy said to have undone it in the recent Lok Sabha polls,the Left Front government on Tuesday made it clear there would be no industrialisation at the cost of food security.

With its land acquisition policy said to have undone it in the recent Lok Sabha polls,the Left Front government on Tuesday made it clear there would be no industrialisation at the cost of food security.

The Land Use Board,reconstituted by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee after the debacle in the Lok Sabha polls and placed under Minister for Land and Land Reforms Abdur Rezzaq Mollah,held its first meeting after which it made clear that multi-crop land would not be acquired for industries.

Earlier,the Board,which earmarks land for industries,was under the Commerce and Industries department.

We will have to ensure food security before we go in for industrialisation for which our first preference will be fallow or single-crop land. Under no circumstances shall we take multi-crop land. Industrialists will have no freedom in choosing their land. They will be shown the land we have earmarked and if they do not like it,they are free to walk out, Mollah,who presided over the meeting with senior state government officials,said.

The Board has taken up the job of preparing maps for five districts initially Bankura,Purulia,West Midnapore,Burdwan and Birbhum.

Incidentally,the chief minister is going to release a book The Man Behind the Plough written by M Azizul Haque,Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of undivided Bengal,which will be published for the second time by Aliah University. The function will be held on August 13. The book dwells upon a farmers mighty fight against attempts to snatch his dear land from him.

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