As Ms Mamata Banerjee made it clear to the industrialists who had gathered at the Eastern Railway's Belvedere Club in Alipore, Kolkata, last Saturday, West Bengal is all set to launch its own “model of development” and not ape the system that is in place in, say, States such as Gujarat. In fact, a number of those who participated in the well-attended meeting cited specifically the “Gujarat model”, which had paid handsome dividends for the State over the past few years.

Ms Banerjee explained that Gujarat's example could not be applied to West Bengal because while Gujarat “had (political) competition every five years”, the situation in her State was different, what with the Left being the dominant political player for more than three long decades.

Clearly, the new Chief Minister must be given sufficient time to evolve a unique development model for West Bengal because of the unenviable position the State finds itself in today in view of its political and economic experience since the late 1970s. But this does not mean there should be inflexible stands on crucial inputs such as land which, unfortunately, is what the land policy suggested by the two-member committee led by the former IAS officer, Mr Debabrata Banerjee, smacks of strongly.

Take note of ground realities

An economic model must take note of the ground realities in West Bengal, specially the land question represented by the Singur episode. Clearly, given the unsavoury experience of the Left Front Government, there is every need to be cautious in framing a land acquisition policy for industry that will have to be fair to farmers, to the agricultural-development potential of the State, and provide encouragement to industry, which is straining at the leash to invest in West Bengal.

In this situation, it will be insensible for the Trinamool-led Government to adopt a line that proclaims: “Industrialists are coming here to earn profit. Why should the Government acquire land for them?” Indeed, this is precisely what Mr Banerjee told reporters last week when asked about the committee's recommendation that the Government should not be involved at all in the land acquisition process, barring helping out with the price issue.

The former bureaucrat is also reported to have said: “Industry should buy land on its own. You cannot have market economy and eminent domain (the power of the State to acquire private property) at the same time”.

The simple question is: why not? The basic issue here is not one of mutual competition, but of the State helping out industry to set up business. It is precisely because of the benefits flowing from being in an “eminent domain” position that the State apparatus can effectively assist private industrialists, big and small, to acquire land in the best possible manner, resulting in benefits for all the players concerned.

Fortunately, the Chief Minister is far more flexible in her approach, and it is to be expected that, in the days ahead, when the land acquisition policy is firmed up, the Government will play a more active role in this specific economic arena. Singur showed up the pitfalls; the job of the new Government is merely to avoid them and not to disassociate itself totally from the process.

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