8/12/2019 TATA Motors in Singur

1/2

TATA Motors in Singur

Q1 Should Government acquire private property for public purpose ?

Revival of Industries has been one of the major focuses of the West Bengal

Government since 1994, when the state's industrial policy was announced. Though

industrialization has increased job opportunities for the citizens of Bengal, one of the

key issues with industrialization is the acquisition of land for industries and

compensation for the land owners. After the land reforms, majority of the lands held

by the state was redistributed to small and marginal farmers. Today, 84% of land inWest Bengal is owned by small (2.5 acres to 5 acres) and marginal farmers (lessthan 2.5 acres).This being the case industrialization cannot happen without the

acquisition of land from the private parties. Second issue is whether government

should directly involve in land acquisitions on behalf of the corporations. Land

acquisition at Singur for Tata Nano is a case in point. Nano project was a prestigious

one for every state in India. West Bengal managed to provide an attractive

proposition to Tata Motors and became the home for the Nano. For this project large

tracts of land (997 acres) was required and generally in such cases corporates areout of their depths because of the fragmented nature of lands in Bengal. Thus the

local government has to lend a helping hand which is what the West Bengal

government did.

Having got the power of land acquisition, West Bengal government has to be lucid

on issues like compensation for land owners, use of fertile land for industrialization

etc. Firstly, government has to revise the rates according to the locality in which land

is situated, market price prevalent at that date etc. In this case $80000 per acre was

the market rate in Singur but the West Bengal Government offered only $17000-

$24000 which is an abysmal 30% of the prevalent rate. Secondly, Land Reforms bill

of the state should clearly dictate whether agricultural lands can be used to construct

industries or not.

8/12/2019 TATA Motors in Singur

2/2