The Mamata Banerjee government will make few amendments in the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955, in its bid to attract new investment in the state. The West Bengal Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2012, was passed in the state Assembly by 152-46 votes after the Opposition Left Front sought a division. This bill, once it becomes an act will, clear the hurdles in setting up industrial parks, IT hubs, bio-tech parks and financial hubs among others in the state.
State parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee who introduced the bill in the House said that when the original act was promulgated, there was no concept of industrial park, IT hub or financial hub. “In the original act, there are some specific sectors for which holding excess land beyond upper land ceiling is permitted. This bill has proposed to include some more sectors in this list. However, to get this benefit, submission of DPR (detailed project report) is mandatory. A group of ministers, headed by the chief minister, will examine the DPRs in detail,” Mr Chatterjee said. In the original act, no person can hold more than 24 acres of non-agricultural land, excepting for sectors like tea estate, mill, factory/workshop, livestock breeding firm, poultry firm/dairy and township in a planning area as permitted by the West Bengal Town and Country (Planning and Development) Act. These sectors enjoy the benefit to hold ceiling excess land. The amendment bill has included some more sectors like industrial park/industrial hub/ industrial estate, financial hub, warehousing, agro industry, power plant, film city, tourism project, educational and medical institutes, bio-tech park, port, airport, shipyard among others for which holding ceiling excess land is permitted.
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Mamata keeps her promise on urdu bill
AGE CORRESPONDENT
Kolkata, April 2
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee kept her pre-poll promise of making Urdu as the official language in the areas where Urdu-speaking people live in substantial number. The West Bengal Official Language (Amendment) Bill, 2012, was passed in the state Assembly on Monday, paving the way for declaring Urdu as the official language in a district or a sub-division or a block or a municipality where Urdu-speaking population exceeds 10 per cent of the total population.
“Today is a highly significant day for the Urdu-speaking people. The government had earlier decided to include Urdu in the list of official languages which include Bengali and Nepali and this bill is an effect to that decision,” the CM said.