Singed with its experience at Singur and Rajarhat where the government’s attempt to acquire land and private firm’s bid to directly purchase land fell through, the Left Front government has hit upon a unique way of procuring land by making a fine balance between acquisition and direct purchase.

The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), which is going to procure 3,000 acres of land at Panagarh in Burdwan district for setting up an industrial park, will be purchasing the land directly from the owners.

Interestingly, however, the corporation has requested the state Land and Land Reforms Department to issue notice for acquisition of land. A delegation of officials from the WBIDC, led by its managing director Subrata Gupta, met Minister for Land and Land Reforms Abdur Rezaq Mollah and discussed the issue with him.

“They have requested us to declare Section 4/1 of the Land Acquisition Act. They are saying that if the notice is given, speculation over the price of land will be minimised. We will consider the proposal,” Mollah said after meeting WBIDC officials.

The WBIDC officials said if the farmers get an offer for selling land there is a possibility that different prices will be quoted and middlemen will shoot the prices. “If the notice is imposed, nobody will be interested to buy that land,” an official said.

Incidentally, after the Singur and Nandigram fiasco the government is now going in for direct purchase of land for industries and other purposes. For example, it has planned to purchase about 12,000 acres of land which will be required to build concrete embankment in the Sunderbans area.