ബംഗാളിൽ വികസനക്കുതിപ്പിന് വഴിതുറക്കുന്നു: അർബൻ ലാൻഡ് സീലിംഗ് നിയമം റദ്ദാക്കാൻ സർക്കാർ നീക്കം

Swapan Dasgupta in Calcutta on Friday Sourced by the Telegraph

Bengal will remove the Urban Land Ceiling Act and rework laws governing the barga system to facilitate development, state finance minister Swapan Dasgupta reiterated on Friday, days before the Suvendu Adhikari government is due to unveil its much-awaited industry policy.

"We have certain laws, which date back to the '70s. Which, the rest of India, has scrapped. One of them is Urban Land Ceiling Act. It is an impediment and a deterrent to development. It has to go," Dasgupta said at a nationwide convention of real estate developers.

The Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act was enacted in 1976 with the objective of preventing concentration of urban land in a few hands and to curb speculation and profiteering. It imposed ceilings on vacant urban land holdings and provided for acquisition of land held above prescribed limits by the state.

The law was subsequently removed by an act of Parliament in 1999 but it was left to the states to adopt it. Bengal never did, much to the discontent of developers who had to deploy circuitous ways to sidestep the law. However, the questionable method prevented national players and institutional funds from taking interest in Bengal's realty, limiting scale of development.

The FM's comment assumed significance as a group of ministers cleared the draft industry policy earlier this week. The state cabinet is likely to approve the policy before the Pujas. Addressing Natcon, the Credai organised convention in Calcutta, Dasgupta also promised to take a relook at legacy barga tenancy system, calling it as an 'impediment to growth.'

"They will have to be overcome with a measure of humaneness and a degree of generosity, perhaps, but we have to," the FM said, noting the system could come in the way of development of industrial parks and technology parks.

Dasgupta feels Bengal provides 'greatest opportunity' for organised developers. "It is a state, crying out for modernisation, crying out for upgradation, and crying to get back to the 21st century. The opportunities are huge because we need to upgrade at every level."