Calcutta, 15 June: The state government wants to hold on to the option of land acquisition as in Singur despite the political price it paid in the rural polls and the Centre’s bid to promote direct purchase by investors.

In its note to the parliamentary standing committee on the amendment bill to the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the state land and land reforms department has said there “should not be any ceiling” on the amount of land to be acquired by the government.

The note will be sent to the committee after it is vetted by the CPM state secretariat and the central leadership.

The amendment bill, under the scrutiny of the parliamentary committee along with the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2007, says the government can acquire 30 per cent of the land required for private projects provided the remaining 70 per cent is directly purchased by the investors.

“We are opposed to the ceiling not only because of fragmented landholding in Bengal, which makes direct purchase cumbersome, but also because it deprives many land-losers of a solatium,’’ land minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah said.

In Singur, those who sold their land willingly had received 30 per cent over the plot price as solatium.

The land department’s note wants provisions “for acquisition for government companies… development authorities and local bodies”. It also wants “provision for land acquisition for infrastructure like industrial parks… by the government or its undertakings” as well as for education and healthcare facilities, government offices and housing.

Mollah said: “It would help the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation and other agencies to hold land that can be leased out for private or joint sector projects.’’

In Singur, the government had transferred land to the corporation, which leased it out to Tata Motors.

The state wants 50 per cent of the land price as compensation for sharecroppers. The Singur farmers were paid 25 per cent. “The law now makes provision for payment of six times the price of a year’s yield,” he said.

His department also wants the solatium doubled from 30 per cent.

Although the department has “no objection” to the Centre’s proposals for paying land-losers the plots’ “prospective value” — or shares of the industries to be set up — the party and the government are yet to make up their mind.

Mollah said: “The bill says the prospective value will be offered only when the land is not used for the original purpose. But we are laying stress on the cancellation of the lease in such cases.”

He wants the government to give back 40 per cent of the acquired plot to landlosers after developing it.

Industry drive

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told a rally in North 24-Parganas’ Deganga, where the CPM lost the rural polls, that the industrialisation drive would continue because “we have to provide jobs to educated youths”. “We need jobs, jobs, jobs,” he said.