Calcutta, Feb. 4: The CPM farmers’ wing has called a meeting with its CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP counterparts tomorrow to discuss differences over the land reforms bill.

The partners, however, called it a “CPM attempt to clear the passage of the bill bypassing the Left Front”.

The West Bengal Land Reforms Amendment Bill, 2006, is being examined by a select committee of the Assembly, which will meet on Tuesday.

Firm on putting up joint resistance to it, the allies have asked front chairman and CPM state secretary Biman Bose to call a meeting immediately.

Besides the bill, “the growing opposition to land acquisition for industry” is also going to be on their agenda.

The bill empowers the government to relax the rural land ceiling for investors and allows acquisition of tribal land.

It also has a provision for making sharecroppers co-owners of 50 per cent of the land they till. The front partners believe this would only smoothen the way for the sale of plots to corporate tycoons and leave sharecroppers landless.

“The bill was not prepared or circulated in the Assembly by consulting the peasant organisations. It was the front that decided to send it to the select committee. So the differences on the bill should be discussed in the front,’’ said Hafiz Alam Sairani, who heads the Bloc’s Agragami Krishak Sabha.

He cautioned that the passage of the bill would “trigger an unprecedented mass uprising in the Left’s traditional support base as it makes room for reintroducing zamindari in the name of industry”.

Sniffing a “ploy” in the CPM’s invitation, the RSP and the CPI had initially decided to boycott the meeting, a CPI leader said. But they changed their minds later as the Bloc decided to attend it.

“The bill will undo all the front achievements in land reforms,” CPI state secretary Manjukumar Majumdar said.

The secretary of the CPM’s Krishak Sabha, Samar Baora, said the land ceiling relaxation was inevitable.

“Land is needed for industry and infrastructure. At least 50,000 acres of farmland have been converted for non-agricultural purposes every year in the state over the past few years. We have to maintain a balance by reclaiming more barren land,” he said.