Calcutta, Dec. 21: The government today passed a bill that allows it to acquire from clo- sed and sick mills, factories, workshops and tea gardens land that had been leased out to them.

The West Bengal Estates Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2009, was necessitated by the fact that the land at these units was being used to build commercial and residential complexes and not to serve the purpose for which it had been given on lease.

“With the amendment, land retained by individuals or groups under the West Bengal Estate Acquisition Act, 1953, for… running factories, mills and tea gardens cannot be used or developed for any purpose other than for what they had been retained and will be taken back,” says the bill tabled by the land and land reforms minister.

The land will then be reused for industry, government officials said.

They added that many of the shut jute factories dotting the city and its suburbs are on such land.

Land minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah said the total area of land that had been given on lease under the 1953 act was 4.63 lakh acres. “So far, we have identified 41,000 acres that have closed factories or tea estates. But the process of identification is on.”

“After the bill becomes law, we can immediately begin the process of acquiring this land,” he added.

Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee had been insisting that instead of acquiring fertile land, the government should use land locked up in closed factories for industry.

“The objective of passing the bill is clear. Either the land will have to be used to run factories, mills and tea gardens or it will be vested (taken back),” said Mollah.

The 1953 act had been enacted to take away land in excess of a ceiling imposed after the zamindari system was aboli- shed. However, instead of shutting down the mills, gardens and workshops already in operation on the zamindars’ plots and acquiring the land, the state government gave it on lease to the owners of the units.

A clause in the 1953 act, though, had left the door open for misuse: it said the premises of these factories, mills or tea gardens may be developed or used for other purposes as well, but with the permission of the state government.

Today’s amendment does away with that clause to prevent “misuse” of the land.

“Citing this provision, many owners were increasingly looking to build shopping malls and housing complexes on the land on which their sick or closed units and tea gardens stood. The bill is aimed at stopping this and giving the government liberty to use the land for industry again,” a senior government official said.

Earlier, the official added, “the moment the government denied them permission (to build a mall, for example), they moved court and obtained a verdict in their favour,” said a senior government official.

Asked what would happen to the complexes that have already come up, minister Mollah said: “A lot of issues have to be examined. But if the state had given permission for them and everything is legal, there shouldn’t be a problem.”