Land reforms in reverse gear?

By Anindita Chowdhury. The Statesman, February 28 2009

In its zeal for industrialisation, the CPI-M now seems to be moving in the reverse gear on land reforms, going back on the progress it made three decades earlier.
The complaint has come from the state land and land reforms department after the state industries department demanded that the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBIIDC) be given ryot status so that they can lease out land to industrialists and manage the land on their own. The proposal apparently, has the blessings of the chief minister as well.

The land department has, however, refused to budge so far, arguing that granting ryot status for leasing out land would create intermediaries (like in the zamindari system) which the Leftists had once sought to abolish. “The state made such progress on land reforms but now granting this status to WBIDC would create a class of intermediaries which goes against the basic tenets of the Land Reforms Act, 1955. This has been our stand even in the courts of law and we cannot violate this in anyway,” said a state government official.

Moreover, according to the Land Reforms Act, a ryot cannot lease out his land and in case of any violation his ownership shall cease and the rights of the lessee will be terminated. However, the state industries department has kept up the pressure but the matter could not be resolved even in the last meeting of the Cabinet sub committee on industry held on 12 February in the presence of the CM, industries minister Mr Nirupam Sen and the land and land reforms minister, Mr Abdur Rezzak Mollah. “They are asking for this right because they think that land allotment should be faster which is possible only if it is in the hands of WBIDC. We cannot give ryot status to WBIDC under Land Reforms Act but we are trying to find another way.”

The land department has now proposed that WBIDC can lease out or even go into outright sale provided it is done under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 which is a central Act and overrides the state’s own act.