A cautious push for industrialisation in West Bengal

The BJP government in West Bengal appears to be in a hurry to usher in administrative and legislative overhaul in the State and reverse the policies of the previous Trinamool Congress government.

Even as it has introduced new legislation to make preventive detentions easier, implement Uniform Civil Code, dismantle the statues and signage of the previous regime, and change names of streets, the Suvendu Adhikari government has also accelerated the push to bring industries to the State.

There have been several shifts at the policy level such as reintroduction of an incentive scheme for industry – which was stopped by the previous regime, exemption for investments over ₹100 crore from acquiring a no-objection certificate from local bodies, and re-examination of the West Bengal Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, which limits private ownership of vacant land in urban agglomerations.

However, the biggest policy announcement for attracting industry was made by the Chief Minister on July 11, when he said that his government would purchase land directly from farmers for setting up industry. “We have accepted the direct land purchase policy of 2013…. With this policy, we are giving land to the BSF, railways and the national highways (authority), and for the new airport… Under the land purchase scheme, we will directly purchase land and hand it over to you,” Mr. Adhikari had said while laying the foundation stone for a manufacturing unit at Dankuni last week.

While the shift in policy indicates that the State government is willing to go the extra mile to attract industries, land acquisition remains a tricky issue. West Bengal is the second most densely populated State in the country with over 1,000 people per square km and the average size of land holding being only 0.77 hectares.

About 20 years ago, the CPI(M)-led Left Front government had returned to power with a huge mandate, winning 235 of the 294 Assembly seats in the State (the BJP won 208 seats in 2026). Led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, it was in haste to industrialise the State and announced the Tata Motors small car factory at Singur.

However, land acquisition for the project spiralled into a key issue, which consequently ended the 34-year-old Left Front government in the State and catapulted Trinamool chairperson Mamata Banerjee to power in 2011. Mr. Adhikari, who was part of the fight against land acquisition at Nandigram, is aware of the dangers of forcible land acquisition and how it could unite people against the government. “We do not want a repeat Singur and Nandigram anti-land acquisition agitations,” he said, emphasising that he did not want industries to directly purchase land from farmers.

However, the Chief Minister’s remark has left the industry without a clarity on land acquisition. Business houses say that a clear picture will emerge only when the government comes up with a land acquisition policy in the next few months.

During the 15 years of Trinamool Congress government, prominent industry leaders made proposals worth lakhs of crores at the Biswa Bangla Global Conventions. Often, they repeated the same proposals year after year, while millions of workers from the State moved to the South and the West of the country to work as migrant workers.

The decision of Tata Motors to leave the State at the height of Singur agitation in 2008 is considered a major setback for West Bengal’s dreams of industrial revival after years of militant trade unionism. Over the past two decades, the Left and Trinamool governments tried hard to shrug off the anti-industry image of the State. In those years, West Bengal lost the race of industrialisation to States in the West and the South of the country.

Starting late in the race, Bengal has to tide over several barriers such as land acquisition – on which there is no clarity, ensuring proper law and order that has hit its nadir because of misrule under the Trinamool regime, and improving its infrastructure that appears to be crumbling.

The BJP government’s promise of turning West Bengal into ‘Sonar Bangla (Golden Bengal)’ cannot be achieved without ushering in industrialisation, and that is perhaps the biggest challenge before the government.