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Mega land acquisition by Bengal for coal blocks

The West Bengal Mineral Development & Trading Corporation Ltd will acquire around 2,800 hectares of land for three coal blocks in Burdwan, one of the largest land acquisitions by any state-run agency since Trinamool Congress came to power in Bengal in May 2011.

The corporation—which has already been pulled up by the coal ministry for delay in the project's execution—needs to take 1186.83 hectares for the Ichhapur mine and 1602.12 ha for two other mines in Burdwan on lease. Land acquisition will begin once the government gets the necessary clearances from the environment ministry.

The corporation will directly negotiate with farmers or owners for purchasing land. State commerce & industries minister Partha Chatterjee said acquisition would only start after it gets clearance from the environment ministry. "Let the land acquisition process start first. We can only start working after we get clearances from the central government," he said.

Romit Mutsuddi, managing director of the corporation, declined to comment. According to sources in the state land and land reforms department, price of the land will vary according to different categories. "Land price for infrastructure-related projects will depend on factors like nature of the project, location and utility," said a senior government official.

At a meeting with stakeholders last month, Mutsuddi clarified that the project promoter would "negotiate directly" with the owners or farmers. While land owners will not be "deprived", they will be given "priority for employment after providing necessary training to suit their requirement". Sources said the corporation would take up corporate social responsibility programmes in the core (in the area of 5-km radius) and non-core areas (in the area of 10 km radius) involving local administration and villagers.

The state pollution control board will give no-objection only after the project is cleared by the environment ministry. "Any project proposal has to be first cleared either by the Union ministry of environment and forest or the state environment department. The WBPCB can only give no-objection once the project is cleared by the ministry or state department," said a senior environment department official.

The West Bengal Mineral Development & Trading Corporation Ltd was allocated three coal blocks in 2006, including Kulti, Sitarampur and Ichhapur coal block in Burdwan. The largest of the projects in Ichhapur coal block in Raniganj will have a capacity of 2 million tonnes per annum and will cover an area of 1192.20 hectares. The other two projects—Kulti and Sitarampur (with a capacity of 1 million tonne each) —will cover an area of 776 ha and 859 ha, respectively.

Earlier last year, the Loba project in Birbhum ran into trouble after villagers demanded higher land prices. The DVC-Bengal Emta mining project had proposed to acquire 3,353 acres of land spread over 11 villages. According to reports, DVC-Bengal Emta paid Rs 12 lakh per acre when the market value was Rs 1.10 lakh to Rs 1.20 lakh per acre.

Source: The Times of India