The West Bengal government on Wednesday decided to take back from industrialists leased-out land that have been lying vacant for long and no factories set up, a government source said. The decision was taken during a cabinet meeting during the day.
The cabinet also decided to reward those industrialists who have set up factories on leased-out land by converting their land-lease to “unconditional deed”.
“The law will be amended to allow the state to take back a piece of land that was leased out at a low price for setting up an industry but is lying vacant for a long time. The land will be taken back citing violation of terms and conditions of the agreement,” he said.
“For those industrialists who have set up factories on leased land, their 99-year leasehold land will be made freehold from now on. This means those who got land on a 99-year lease will get an unconditional deed. And 30-year lease will be extended to 99 years. The necessary law in this regard will also be amended,” he said.
Incidentally, a few days ago, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had held a virtual meeting with industrialists during which discussions on similar issues were held.
The cabinet also decided to increase the capacity of Furfura Rural Hospital from 30 beds to 100 and fill vacancies at Saratchandra Medical College and Hospital in Uluberia and Jhargram Medical College and Hospital, he added.
The cabinet also granted permission to use drones to fight fire, he said.
Two drones will be made available to the fire department in February and two more in another few weeks’ time.
Apart from this, the cabinet also okayed plans to build new fire stations and repair the dilapidated ones.
The Kalighat Fire Station will be repaired and the structure will be a smaller replica of Kalighat temple.
State Fire Minister Sujit Bose said the design of Kalighat Fire Station was okayed by the CM.
The cabinet also gave permission to build four new fire stations in Lake Town in the city, Jangipur in Murshidabad district, Dubrajpur in Birbhum and Deganga in North 24 Parganas, he said.