Nandigram: a lost opportunity

ROHIT KHANNA & SUBHOMOY BHATTACHARJEE
Posted online: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 at 0012 hours IST

KOLKATA, MAR 20 : On Tuesday, the Nandigram block office sent a letter
to all parties and officials announcing the termination of the land
acquisition programme for the special economic zone. The only address,
where there was no one to receive the letter, was the CPI(M) office. It
probably realised that the opportunity extended by the project to
transform the southern Bengal landscape had already been lost.
As one drives into Nandigram, one realises the enormity of this loss
even more deeply. The over-populated block, whose 46 mouzas out of 99
(roughly equivalent to a village) were to be converted into the proposed
SEZ, have been sent a Rs 4 crore development plan for 2007-08. That
means a per capita expenditure of less than Rs 23.

The SEZ plan, on the other hand, would have seen an inflow of at least
Rs 100 crore in the first few months. The total investment envisaged in
the chemical SEZ planned over 25,000 acres was a whopping Rs 20,000
crore. The PWD road of 29 km to the block can break the resolve of even
a Tata Sumo vehicle. Incensed villagers have themselves, in the last 2-3
months, dug up other access roads like those from Haldia and other
districts.

Speaking to FE, Nandigram-I's block development officer Ashok Sarkar
said, "It is easy for you as an outsider to appreciate the
opportunities, but it is difficult to make people realise that all of a
sudden."

This, despite the fact that almost 34% of the working population in the
two affected blocks of Nandigram I and II travel 135 km daily to Kolkata
or Haldia to find jobs. A large percentage of these are employed as
tailors in Metiaburuz, Kolkata's port area, thanks to the demographic
profile, with 40% of the population being Muslim.

And as time passes, shopkeepers at Nandigram like Raju Mondol who runs a
sweet shop, now acknowledge they may have lost an opportunity that could
have finally given south Bengal a city to compete with Kolkata in
providing employment.

In fact, the macabre of the past few days has actually set the clock
back on development. Nandigram I as part of the East Midnapore district
had achieved the status of a fully sanitised block by 2000. But a local
school teacher acknowledged that many of the toilets had faced mob fury.
Sarkar also confirmed the development.

As Contai MLA Shubhendu Adhikari told FE, the angry villagers have seen
the failure of another land acquisition done on the Haldi river bank at
Jellingham, for 250 acres, some years ago. The project ran aground
within a year of being built and many villagers are still to get their
compensation. In this backdrop, it was a big deal to sell an ambitious
dream to desperately poor people.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=158469