Patna, March 3: In poll-bound Bihar, everything melts down to politics.
After attacking the Centre over the general budget, chief minister Nitish Kumar has focused his attention on the land acquisition bill, describing it as "pro-corporate and anti-farmer" and directed his party to launch state-wide dharnas against it.
Industrialists say that if the Bihar government opposes the present bill, they should come up with a better law. "While it may be good politics, it has no relevance to Bihar for us," said an industrialist.
"I have had to abandon two projects because I could not take possession of land. The problem is that the state government does not have possession of land for which it has paid money," said Satyajit Singh, who heads the Bihar unit of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He pointed out that there were around 2,000 acres of land falling in this category. "At least 750 acres of land in Kahalgaon are lying unused," he said.
The last major acquisition of land in Bihar was for Nalanda University in Rajgir. "Even for this most high-profile project, Nitish Kumar had stones thrown at him and the complete land acquisition could not take place," recalled an official, stressing that in Bihar there was a general reluctance on the part of the people to part with their land.
The power project in Nabinagar got delayed due to land problems. The government has come up with proposals such as land banks and the "Aao Bihar" initiative to provide land to investors. "Till date not a single acre of land has been acquired. Biada has stopped taking proposals more than six months ago because they don't have land. Some of the investors who had land allotted to them failed to get procession," said an investor. Interestingly, the 2,500 acres the Nitish regime has allotted in the name of industries had been lying unused since the Lalu-Rabri era.
It's not surprising that major investment proposals have failed to take off due to land problems. The Taj group was interested in setting up its hotel in Patna. They were asked to search for land themselves. Max New York Life proposed to set up a Rs 350-crore super-speciality hospital. They could not find land. Investors for the food park in Kahalgaon had to return because they could not get their allotted land. Even the ongoing United Breweries project is getting delayed due to land problems.
The Nitish administration is opposing the Narendra Modi government's bill because it does away with the consent of farmers and social audit. "In Bihar, the problem is that land holdings are so small that even if we require 100 acres for a project, we will have to talk to 200 persons and there will be some not willing to give away their land at any cost," said an investor. They stress that even in cases of routine acquisition, there is a social audit through the local block and district officers with talks with the land owners.
Principal secretary, land revenue, Vyasji told The Telegraph that the government was ready to give 1,000 hectares of land if such a proposal comes. "In our land acquisition laws, we have a provision for granting the land on lease for the investors," he said. However, officials say there was no major problem in getting land for small investments such as beer or biscuit factories.
"But major investment proposals are not coming," another official admitted.
The BJP is predictably ridiculing Nitish Kumar for opposing the land acquisition bill for "opposition's sake". "First, it is for the state to implement the Centre's Act. If Nitish Kumar does not want to implement it, he is free not to do so," said BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.
Even when there was no clause of consent and social audit, the government failed to acquire land for its own projects and industries. With these clauses, acquiring land had become next to impossible, Modi stressed, pointing out that major irrigation, road, airport and rail projects were pending due to land acquisition.
"Does Bihar not need hospitals, schools, industries? And what happens to its metro project and the greater Patna project?" said Modi.