Singur, Nandigram and now the issue of Vedic Village. Barely a fortnight after an arson attack on the 7-star luxury spa in the north-eastern fringes of the city threw up allegations of land grabbing and price anomalies, one of the state government?s priced IT projects, where land was promised to IT majors Infosys and Wipro, has been canned. The project, spread over 600 acres, was supposed to come up next to the spa in which Vedic Realty MD Raj Kishore Modi, now in police custody, is a promoter.
A press release by the IT department posted on its website on Monday says ?Under the circumstances, at this moment we are unable to stick to our assurances of providing land to Wipro and Infosys and thereby constrained to inform them about the government?s inability.? Both Infosys and Wipro had been promised 90 acres each in the IT park. The state government has got some time from Infosys to look for an alternative piece of land because it has put its Kolkata investment plan on hold due to the recession. Though on Monday Infosys said they had ?no remarks? on the development.
A statement from Infosys last week had said: ?We have entered into an MoU with the state government for our proposed venture. We have put that investment on hold. We will take a decision on investment once the impact of global recession is over.? This would have been Infosys? first facility in the city and this inability to provide land is a huge setback for the state?s IT industry.
Wipro, which already has a facility in Kolkata, is keen to expand.According to Laxman Badiga, chief information officer, Wipro Technologies: ?We are currently assessing the government?s announcement on the non-availability of land for the IT facility. Wipro already has a presence in West Bengal and we have adequate space for our current operations. We are committed to have a continued presence here and are confident that West Bengal can provide sufficient opportunities for the IT industry to grow and expand.?
The IT department?s 5-page note lists out the circumstances under which the government was forced to arrive at the decision to scrap the project. The MoUs with both Infosys and Wipro were signed in 2008. It says ?despite continuous efforts land could not be offered to some key IT companies who have been demanding the same since 2004-05.?
Companies like Wipro and Infosys were interested to set up shop at new town Rajarhat but the prices were a deterrent, the release says. In 2006, Infosys was shown a plot near Vedic Village by WBIDC. ?The state government planned to make land available for Infosys and other IT companies near Vedic Village by March 2007, but this land couldn?t be acquired till date.?
The release says the IT department was under pressure as it failed successive dates for acquiring and handing over land to Infosys and other IT companies, and that, to address ?this impasse? it explored all available options: ?land acquisition, land purchase and public private partnership.?
According to the release, after the IT department failed to acquire land through the land and land reforms department, it entered into a joint venture with a private company, Akash Nirman Pvt Ltd, which would assemble the land and hand over 50% to the government free of cost to allot land to IT companies. Modi of Vedic Village was also a partner in Akash Nirman.
Departments such land and land reforms, housing have pointed fingers at the nature of the land acquisition process after the Vedic Village fiasco. Land minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah said the project should be cancelled. The IT department release says the Cabinet had okayed the partnership with the private party to set up the IT township. ?The memo was placed before the Cabinet Standing Committee on Industry, which approved the proposal on February 28, 2008.? The release says other departments like housing, land and land reforms, urban development, PWD, irrigation and waterways, power, and the chief secretary?s office had known about the planned IT project.
?It is impossible for the IT department to proceed with the project, if any of the six departments refuses to facilitate? the IT department can?t proceed with the project.? Just Infosys and Wipro investments would have accounted for at least Rs 1,000 crore and many jobs. What?s ironic is that in May 2009, ?the IT department had got a list of 90 acres of land from the private partner that could be given to IT companies.?
On May 27, 2009, the IT department had informed Infosys about it but the IT major informed the state that ?though they were keen to take the land, they preferred to go slow in view of the global economic slowdown.? The IT department then offered 50 acre to Wipro and was ?looking into the details of the land? when the arson attack on Vedic Village played spoilsport.
After posting the release, the IT department even invited questions on the project and by the evening had even clarified on some aspects. Like for example, it said it wasn?t possible to allocate an alternative site for the IT township at present. The department also said ?there is no denial of the negative impact of the project being scrapped because according to estimates, the project once completed would have employed 2.5-3 lakh people.?
Asked about allegations of land grabbing, the department clarified that the ?basic tenets of the joint venture agreement did not provide any supervisory role for Webel, the nodal government IT agency, to oversee the purchasing process of the private partner.at no point of time neither Webel nor IT department got any sort of information regarding the alleged forcible purchase of land.?