Bihar industries minister Renu Kushwaha (right) at the news meet in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, July 7: The Bihar government today made it clear that it does not want “confrontation” in carrying out land acquisition in the state.

The statement comes after the Supreme Court slammed state governments for taking advantage of the colonial land acquisition legislation to grab land of poor farmers.

“We do not want any kind of confrontation with farmers on the issue of land acquisition for the purpose of industrialisation. Rather we want a peaceful co-existence of industries and farmers,”industries department principal secretary C.K. Mishra told reporters here.

The state government’s re-iteration with regard to its policy on land acquisition assumes significance as the apex court on Tuesday criticised the state governments for acquiring land by taking the advantage of colonial land acquisition act of 1894 in the name of development.

“The common man’s right is taken away by instrumentalities of the state, which should actually protect them. We can understand if land is acquired for constructing a barrage, canal or road. But buildings, hotels, and commercial complexes are being developed (on the land) to which the common man has no access,” the court said in its order. Mishra, however, admitted that “difficulty in carrying out land acquisition is the state government’s handicap and without land acquisition, industries can’t be set up.” Stating that land acquisition is a problem area, the principal secretary said that the government has taken two major steps to overcome the problem.

First, land bank is being set up for which InfrastrucTure Development Authority (IDA) is working on it. Second, the government has come out with a scheme “Come to Bihar” under which the state government would be playing the role of “facilitator” between the farmers and entrepreneurs.

Mishra said: “We have come out with an industrial incentive policy of 2011, which came into existence from July 1 for five years. The policy containing various rules would be notified by the end of this month unlike the previous policy whose many clauses could not be notified at its expiry.”