Calcutta, March 12: Bengal has made a legislative provision for a resettlement colony to accommodate landlosers in Rajarhat – a signal that the government could broadbase its rehabilitation policy.

So far, such alternative arrangements covered only families below the poverty line. The ordinance related to Rajarhat does not make any specific reference restricting itself to any particular income group.

The provision is made in the New Town ordinance, which deals with the development project in Rajarhat. The ordinance received presidential assent in December and was tabled in the Assembly today.

However, the ordinance does not make it mandatory for agencies to build such a resettlement colony, complained activists of the Rajarhat Jami Bacho Comm-ittee.

The decree says that “relaxation” would be made “for setting up rehabilitation and resettlement” colonies. The activists said they would have been happier had the wording been more categorical.

The ordinance also promises to ease building and other civic rules if they “cause undue hardships” to “any class of persons or areas”.

The sprawling New Town came up largely on agricultural land. The area didn’t witness much resistance from farmers or political unrest over land acquisition, unlike in Nandigram and Singur.

The original master plan had no provision for rehabilitation, though there was a mention of what it called “services villages”.

“The aim was to accommodate landlosers who would seek alternative livelihood by serving as domestic help in the houses in the township and rickshaw-pullers,’’ a committee member said.

However, housing minister Goutom Deb said today that the provision for the resettlement colony will help landlosers further. “We’ve decided to provide alternative dwellings to those who lost homes. Till that is done, Hidco (the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation) will pay for their rented shelters,’’ Deb said.

Hidco has resettled 600 landloser families at Chatragachi in Raharjat, he added.

The ordinance that brings the New Town under a government-appointed authority offers scope for further land acquisitions in Rajarhat and adjoining areas. It says the authority will pay compensation to farmers for plots acquired in accordance with the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

The minister said the management of a residential township by a nominated authority is the “first of its kind in the country”.

But some MLAs felt that while the ordinance empowered the authority and the government, it ignored the residents’ right to participate in civic affairs.