Land dept nod must for industry now

KOLKATA: Abdur Rezzak Mollah would have been a happy man today, had he been in the government. Learning from the Tata fiasco, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the land and land reforms minister, has given the land department its legitimate right. She has framed a new policy by which the land department will function as the mother of the 52 departments. Thus, any land deal with industrialists or developers will have to be vetted by the land department.
The new policy will entail return of unused land to the parent (land and land reforms) department.All this time the agencies would enjoy the extra constitutional power of vesting such land.
This was already the norm as per the West Bengal Rules of Business, made by the Governor of West Bengal under Article 166 (3) of the Constitution. But the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government chose not to adhere to it and chose to pass a Cabinet decision empowering agencies like West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco), Haldia Development Authority (HAD), Asansol Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA) and the likes to act as owners (rayot) and lease out land at their free will. Armed by the Cabinet approval, the erstwhile commerce and industries minister Nirupam Sen had made WBIDC the rayot (owner) for the 997.11 acres of the Singur land. Thus, during the Tata deal, instead of remaining just a requiring body (RB) during the Tata Motors' deal, WBIDC had found it convenient to act as the original owners (bypassing the land and land reforms department) and lease out the land to Tata Motors.
That's when former land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah had raised his voice, pointing out to the original rules that were being flouted. "This caused much debate between the two departments constantly and led to a lot of confusion regarding the Tata deal," said a WBIDC official.
Similar debates cropped up between the land department and KMDA and Hidco (refer to the Vedic Village scam). But the most famous "controversy" that splashed headlines when Mollah wanted to know about the agreement between developers and KMDA for the plots along the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.
"The individual departments and their respective agencies used the rayot (ownership) rights to sell land for premium. They also reaped huge profits in the bargain. Often, these deals with industrialists (read Tatas) and realtors turned out to be opaque. If the government departments benefitted, one would have had no issues. But quite often there was no way of knowing whether the individual lessee had benefitted by getting land darn cheap," former land reforms minister Mollah told TOI on Friday.
The chief minister has asked all government departments to send to her (land) department all lease agreements between developers and industrialists. The policy has retrospective effect, making it mandatory for all developments and bodies to submit ongoing agreements and those clinched in the recent past for scrutiny by the land department.
The land department, in turn, will scan the files and give its comments. The industry department and its facilitating agency, or the urban development department with its many local development bodies (KMDA, ADDA, HDA et al) must accept views expressed by the land department. They must also provide necessary clarifications. A senior official said, "This is a very crucial administrative decision. It will help ease inter-departmental conflicts."
Hopefully in future, issues like the one in the Tata agreement where many questions were asked about why and how WBIDC could have vested the Singur land when it was only supposed to be the requiring body. The Tatas have sought to know in their petition to the high court as to why WBIDC has framed the Singur Land Development and Rehabilitation Bill, and not the land department.