Bengal govt to review utilisation status of land given on leasehold in previous Trinamool regime
Kolkata, July 31
The West Bengal Land and Land Revenue Department has decided to conduct a thorough review of the current utilisation status of land given on leasehold to private entities during the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime.
An insider from the state department said that the thorough review of the current utilisation status of such leasehold land is being done basically for two purposes.
"The first is whether the land taken on leasehold during the previous regime has been utilised for the projects for which the lease was granted or whether the land has been left unused for a long time. In case of total non-utilisation of the land for the project it was being taken for, the state government might take back the land from the individual or entity to whom the land was given on leasehold, so that the same land could be allotted to any other party for industrial project purposes," said a senior officer from the department.
However, in case of partial utilisation, the state government might seek clarification on when the project for which the land was taken on leasehold would be implemented on a case-to-case basis and, if necessary, might even set a realistic deadline for that purpose.
The second purpose of the land utilisation status review is to check whether the land was used for industrial projects for which it was given on leasehold or had been utilised for any non-scheduled purpose without prior permission from the competent authority.
"In this case, clarification would be sought from the individual or entity to whom the land was given on why that land was utilised for a non-scheduled purpose. Thereafter, the state government will evaluate such cases and consider imposing a financial penalty and even cancellation of the lease," the state government official said.
It came to the notice of the state government that there had been several instances of land given on leasehold being either unutilised or partially utilised for a prolonged period or utilised for non-scheduled purposes.
Recently, the West Bengal government has adopted a "direct land-purchase" policy, wherein the state government directly purchases land from the landowners concerned and subsequently transfers the purchased land for infrastructure or industrial projects for which it had been purchased.
"At the same time, the state government has also decided to utilise the land parcels held by closed industries or unused leasehold land parcels for the same purpose. The review of the utilisation status of land parcels given on leasehold during the previous regime is the first step on this count," the department officer said.
— IANS
Reader Comments
I've been following Bengal's industrial story from overseas (I'm from a family that moved to the US years ago). This decision sounds sensible - "use it or lose it" is a fair principle when it comes to government land. But I hope the review process is transparent and not used as a political weapon against opponents. The devil is always in the details.
Honestly, there's both good and bad in this move. Good that they're trying to reclaim unused land for development. Bad that it's only targeting land given during Mamata's time. What about leases given during Left Front rule? Many of those projects also failed badly. Let's be consistent in whatever action we take, not selective.
As a small businessman from Kolkata, I find this reassuring. We've seen how some big names got huge chunks of prime land but then sat on it, maybe waiting for land prices to rise or doing side businesses with it. The "direct land-purchase" policy sounds like a good step too - much better than endless lease litigations. Make it quick and efficient, please! 🙏
I'm a final-year student at JU and this brings back memories of our civic issues class. Land mafia and speculative holding have choked Bengal's industrial growth for decades. The state should not just review but also make the entire lease process online and transparent. Also, why not publish a public dashboard showing who holds what land and its current status? That would bring true accountability.
I work in infrastructure consulting and saw similar "land audits" in other states. The key is
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