Bengal land Bill stalls in select committee

The committee, chaired by land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah, decided at a meeting on Tuesday that it would seek an extension of its term, which was to have ended with the current session, i.e., on July 31.

Mollah told reporters that the decision to seek an extension was unanimous. “It is a one-line decision, and I have nothing more to say.”

The Bill had been tabled in the House on November 18 last year, but its provisions met with opposition from the CPI(M)’s partners in the Left Front.

Outside the House also, it was discussed hotly at several Left Front meetings, following which it was decided to incorporate the changes via a select committee of the House.

The Bill, among other things, seeks to introduce a transfer clause that will help industry immensely.

Second, the changes seek to modernize the 1955 law by including “industry, commerce or infrastructure” among the purposes for which the state can acquire land.

Third, the Bill will give bargadars a legal foothold in claiming compensation, by requiring him to surrender the right of cultivation in respect of half the land cultivated by him to the land owner, thereby making it unnecessary for industry to deal with sharecroppers.

Tomorrow, the Bill is scheduled to be discussed at a meeting of the Left Front, sources said. The chief minister will be present to explain the need for the changes. Left Front sources said the Bill is likely to be put in cold-storage for now.

Said a senior Left Front leader: “It is not just the RSP, CPI and Forward Bloc; a big section of the CPI(M) also does not want the Bill to be passed.”

A CPI(M) leader said the Bill will be left alone till the biennial state conference of the party scheduled for January-February next year.

“The top brass at Alimuddin Street wants the Bill to be cleared by the State conference to show the partners that the party is fully behind it,” the leader said.