WEST BENGAL - MINING A CONTROVERSY

The Deocha Pachami coal mining project, involving land acquisition of thousands of acres, including a wide expanse of forests and 12 Adivasi villages, will be West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s biggest challenge yet.

- Romita Datta

No one in the state has forgotten that 14 years ago, Mamata had been on the other side of the fence, spearheading the agitation against the Left Front government’s land acquisition policy in Singur, which led to the Tatas migrating an iconic car project to Gujarat, and Bengal earning the dubious reputation of being hostile to industry in the bargain. The public blowback from the row contributed in no small measure to the ouster of the CPI(M)-led Left Front government and Mamata’s rise to power in 2011.

A decade later, the Trinamool Congress chief herself is wary and determined to avoid the mistakes of the Left Front in Singur. Any investment that requires large tracts of land comes with attendant problems, but given the time she has invested in building consensus around the project—two years since it was announced—and finessing the compensation package for those who will be displaced from their lands or lose livelihoods, chances are the project will finally take off without causing much heartburn. Mamata has even made sure that the word ‘acquisition’ is not mentioned anywhere in the government notification on Deocha Pachami. She insists the government is going for direct purchase of land from the owners, and with their consent.