Darjeeling district has the largest chunk of unutilised land

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Wednesday, 30 May 2012 11:39

Written by Express news service

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The United Sherpa Association and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute on Tuesday celebrated the 59th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Mount Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. A homage was paid to Everester Tenzing by members of the Sherpa association who offered khadas to his statue.
Picture by Suman Tamang

80,000 acres in land bank

Kolkata The state government has 80,000 acres of land on which it could set up industries. A booklet published by the Trinamool Congress-led government on the completion of its one year rule has come out with this number.

After coming to power, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in her first cabinet meeting had decided to set up a land bank and asked Land and Land Reform Department to compile a date of land lying unused by the various government offices. A year later, it seems the land bank, as it is said, has 60,000 acres under the ownership of district administration of 18 districts. Another 20,000 acres are lying unused with various departments of the government.

“There is lot more land still unrecovered. The process is on. Since the state government is not going to acquire land for setting up industries this unused land will be offered to the industrialists,” a senior official at Writers’ Buildings said.

Though the number may seem be huge but it may not be able to be of much use. These lands are scattered and therefore if we want to set up an industry in a single plot of 5,000-acre of land, we won’t be able to do it. But still this will help us a lot in setting up more industries,’’ added the official.

Darjeeling district has the largest chunk of unutilised land — 16, 947.93 acres. Bankura comes second with 15,000 acres.

The state government is also coming up with another map on what kind of industries suits the land available with it. ``The classification of land is done by Commerce and Industries Department and it will be compiled very soon,’’ said an official of the department.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, before coming to power, promised that while there would be no forcible acquisition of land and a land bank will be constituted for it. She had instructed the Land and Land Reforms department to finish the work on a war footing. The land reforms commissioner issued at least 20 letters to various departments and the district magistrates to furnish the details of the list of unused land.