The Food Park at Leusipokhri near Siliguri

Siliguri, Oct. 15: A Calcutta-based company has decided to scrap its project at the Food Park near here and has asked the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority (SJDA) to take back the land and return the money with interest.

Somnath Agro-tech Products (India) Pvt Ltd that had bought two acres at the park in July to build a modern rice mill said it was abandoning the project as some local people were hampering the work at the site, demanding that all construction material be purchased from them.

“We paid the SJDA Rs 72 lakh on July 22 and took possession of a two-acre plot at the Food Park. But ever since work began, a section of local residents kept on insisting that they should be given the orders for the construction material. They would pose problems whenever our suppliers reached the site to unload material,” said Kailash Agarwal, the director of the company with its registered office at Mahanirman Road in Calcutta.

“We tried all possible means to end the problem but there was no positive result. Finally, we had to take the decision of scrapping the project and wrote to the chief executive officer (CEO) of the SJDA, asking him to return the money with interest and take back the land,” said Agarwal.

He said the mill was the first venture of the company and it entailed an investment of Rs 4 crore. “On the very first day when we reached the site for a puja, around 50 people approached us and asked us to hand over all construction work to them. The rates they were quoting for the supplies were 70-80 per cent higher than the market prices,” said the entrepreneur.

The company later sought the intervention of the North Bengal Industries Association to end the problem. “We met SJDA officials who in turn called a meeting where the local people were present. The CEO, Avanindra Singh, warned the local people against causing any inconvenience to the industrialists and we thought that things would change. But nothing happened and the highhandedness and intimidation of the local goons continued,” said Surajit Paul, the general secretary of the association.

Paul said the extortionists were the members of some associations or societies at Leusipokhri — 30km from Siliguri — where the park is located.

“Later, we came to know from the supplier selected by the company that the local toughs had demanded ‘goonda tax’ from him at Rs 250 per one truck of sand, Rs 350 for truck of stone and Rs 120 per one tonne boulders. We desperately tried to stop the company — Somnath Agro-tech Products is a member of our association —from exiting the park. But the firm decided to scrap the project,” said Paul.

In his letter to the SJDA, Agarwal has demanded interest at the rate of 18 per cent for Rs 72 lakh.

The association said Bengal urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya, who is also the chairman of the SJDA, had been requested many times to intervene, but he did not.

“The chief minister himself had laid the foundation stone of the Food Park and it is Asok Bhattacharya who is in charge of the SJDA,” Paul said. “At a time Bhattacharya is iterating the need for investments in north Bengal, a company is pulling out of the Food Park in Siliguri.”

Bhattacharya said the food processing company’s exit was unfortunate. “It is definitely a setback. Nevertheless, we will try and talk to both the parties (the investor and the local residents) to resolve the crisis. If the entrepreneur sticks to his decision, we will have to return his money.”

The SJDA chief, Singh, could not be contacted.