Singur and Nandigram very much on their mind, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Sajjan Jindal of JSW Steel Ltd today finalized a novel compensation model for landlosers that includes guaranteed employment and grant of equity shares in the company to be formed for implementing the 10-million-tonne steel project at Salboni in West Midnapore district.

The model is expected to set a benchmark for all industrial projects in the state. “We shall advise all entrepreneurs to follow this model in future,” Bhattacharjee said.

Under this new model:

• Each landloser will get half the land-value in cash, while the rest will be deposited with the District Magistrate with interest going to the landloser.

• The landloser can withdraw the interest accrued to his account at periodic intervals. Land price will be decided after the administration holds final talks with the villagers.

• Over and above the compensation for land, each landloser will get shares in the company, JSW Bengal Steel Ltd, equal in value to the full price of the land acquired.

• One member of each of the 741 land-owning family set to lose their land will also get a job.

The Rs 35,000-crore project will require a total of 4525 acres of which 3198 acres is already with the state land department and 877 acres with the animal husbandry department. The Jindals will have to buy only 450 acres from private owners. The 150-acre adjoining forest land has been excluded from the project area. The government will not acquire any homes.

... contd.