In a snub to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Minister for Land and Land Reforms Abdur Rezzaq Mollah has curbed the freedom of choice for industrialists.

“Investors cannot choose land at will the way they did in Singur,” Mollah declared in Assembly in reply to the debate on the budget of land and land reforms that was passed on Friday. “They will have to set up industry only at the sites earmarked. If they are satisfied it is fine, otherwise we will show them the door.”

He was referring to the preparation of land use map by the Land Use Board under his department.

The board came under the purview of his ministry following the CPM’s debacle in the Lok Sabha Elections. The announcement to that effect was made by the chief minister in the very first cabinet meet after the polls.

“We are making an extensive map earmarking land for industry and agriculture,” said Mollah, who was a great votary against fast acquisition of land for agriculture and in 2006 even resigned from the cabinet on this issue. “It will take five to six years to prepare the map for the whole state. So initially, we have chosen 74 blocks from six districts — Purulia, Bankura, West Midnapore, part of Burdwan and part of Hooghly.”

Neither Bhattacharjee nor Nirupam Sen, the Minister for Commerce and Industries, who had gone to Delhi to attend a party central committee meeting, were available for comment.

Mollah said his department was mulling the enactment of a law in the model of Maharashtra, which will prevent cultivable land from being sold to a non-farmer. “We will try to enact the law as soon as possible,” the minister said. And he made it clear that he was determined to protect the interests of the farmer. “I am the minister for land and my primary job is to protect the interests of farmers. My father used to take most care of the cow that became old,” he said while wrapping up his speech.

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