The West Bengal government is exploring land pooling and the development of additional industrial parks to facilitate access to large parcels of land for industry without direct acquisition from individual landowners, an issue that remains politically sensitive in the state following the Singur and Nandigram agitations. 
Subrata Gupta, adviser to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, said land pooling was among the options being evaluated for land aggregation, alongside a greater focus on industrial parks. He said the objective was to make larger parcels available to industry while addressing the difficulties created by fragmented land holdings. 
Under a land-pooling model, multiple privately owned parcels are brought together for planned development rather than being acquired outright by the government. Landowners can receive developed plots or other benefits in exchange for contributing their land to the scheme. 
Gupta said such models could allow large, contiguous parcels to be assembled while limiting the state’s direct involvement in transactions with individual landowners. If West Bengal decides to implement land pooling, legislation would be required to establish the necessary framework. 
One of the largest examples of the model is in Andhra Pradesh, where about 33,000 acres were pooled from around 29,000 farmers for the development of Amaravati. Land pooling, land readjustment and related town-planning models have also been used in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab and Kerala. 
The effectiveness of such arrangements depends on several factors, including clear land titles and records, transparent rules governing the distribution of benefits, defined implementation timelines, stakeholder participation and an effective mechanism for resolving grievances. A policy brief by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements has described land pooling as an alternative to conventional acquisition, under which landowners receive a share of developed land or other benefits according to predetermined criteria. 
For West Bengal, the model could provide a mechanism for addressing fragmented holdings without requiring the state to acquire individual agricultural parcels. It could also allow landowners to participate in the increase in land value resulting from planned development. 
Industrial parks are another route being examined. Under this approach, private developers can aggregate land and establish industrial parks with ready-to-use plots and shared infrastructure for industrial units. Such developments could help companies requiring large contiguous parcels while addressing restrictions that individual businesses may face when assembling land. 
The state is also examining reforms to land laws governing holding and utilisation. Gupta, a former IAS officer, said repealing the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act would not by itself resolve the challenges faced by industry because industrial units generally do not come under the urban land ceiling. 
He said the focus instead needed to be on reforms to land laws that impose restrictions on holding and utilisation. Large industrial projects require substantial land parcels, and the legal framework would need to allow companies to retain and use such land for their intended purposes. 
West Bengal is also considering land belonging to closed industrial units as another source for meeting industrial land requirements. The approach could provide land for new projects without requiring fresh acquisition of agricultural land. 
The government is separately examining issues involving bargadars, or sharecroppers, who are no longer engaged in farming but continue to hold legal rights over land. Gupta said reforms relating to these rights were also being considered as part of the broader review of land-related regulations. 
The proposed land-assembly mechanisms are being examined against the backdrop of West Bengal’s history of opposition to compulsory land acquisition for industry. The government’s current approach places greater emphasis on pooling, industrial parks, existing industrial land and changes to land-use regulations rather than direct acquisition from individual landowners. 
Source - PTI