West Bengal's land policy followed now by others: Amit Mitra

KOLKATA: The land policy of the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal of no forcible acquisition of land from farmers is now being followed by some other states, state finance and IT minister Amit Mitra said today.

"The land policy of the present government under Mamata Banerjee clearly states that there will be no forcible land acquisition from farmers. This is now being followed elsewhere," he said at the FICCI national executive meet here.

Citing recent protests by farmers at Noida, Mitra said that some states like Uttar Pradesh were now toeing the line which West Bengal had set.

He said the state was having one lakh acres of land under various government departments which was readily available for setting up industries.

Highlighting the progress of the state in various fields during the last four years of Trinamool Congress rule, he said all macro-parameters like per capita income, plan expenditure, capital expenditure had improved while e-governance measures had pushed the state's domestic product growth.

Mitra also said that the state had bagged the "highest award" for e-governance among other states this year.

Seamless implementation of e-governance across departments had helped in reducing time, decreasing rent seeking and increased transparency.