Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday rolled out a rehabilitation package for land-losers affected by a coal project in Birbhum, which many in the Bengal administration believe may set the standard for land acquisition packages offered by state and central governments.

The chief minister, who rode to power opposing forcible land acquisition by the Left government, made it clear while listing the contours of the rehabilitation package linked to the Deocha-Pachami project that taking along the land-losers by sweetening the deal is the only option to implement major projects.

“There will be no forcible acquisition like it was done in Singur. We will start the project only after winning the trust of the local people,” Mamata told the Assembly on Tuesday.

The Rs 10,000-crore package the chief minister announced on Tuesday includes several cushions in addition to compensation for the land.

Some of the main features of the package are:

⚫ Rs 10 lakh to Rs 13 lakh a bigha (the market rate is around Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh a bigha, depending on the location) for the land-losers.

⚫ A house covering a carpet area of 600sqft in a colony that will be set up for the affected families.

⚫ An additional amount of Rs 5.5 lakh as shifting charge, maintenance allowance and cost of cattle shed.

⚫ Employment as junior constable in state police for one member from each of the affected families.

⚫ A maintenance allowance of Rs 10,000 a month for a year for each of the nearly 3,000 labourers working in the stone-crushing units in the area.

⚫ A one-time grant of Rs 50,000 each for 160 farm labourers in the area. They will be guaranteed work under the MGNREGA.

⚫ The stone-crushing unit owners in the area will be rehabilitated in a nearby industrial park and raw material will be supplied to them free for six months in addition to Rs 50,000 as shifting charge.

A senior land department official said: “There is little doubt that it’s the best possible rehabilitation package and it will set a benchmark across the country.”

Acquisition of land has been a topic of debate across the country ever since the Tata Motors factory was shifted from Singur in the face of Mamata’s sustained opposition to forcible takeover of land.

Amid the nation-wide debate on how governments can acquire land, the Centre had introduced a new acquisition policy on January 1, 2014, by offering several facilities to the land-losers over and above compensation for their plots.

The new land acquisition act, however, was not implemented in Bengal as the chief minister had made it clear that the state would not acquire land because it symbolised forcible takeover. In 2015, Mamata had announced a direct land purchase policy.

The package announced by the chief minister has scored over the Centre’s new acquisition act, said a Bengal land department official. In the modified central act, the land-losers get three to four times the prevailing market price of land in addition to the cost of structure, if any, on the plot.

“But the package announced by the chief minister has several other facilities like jobs for affected families, maintenance allowance for a certain period, shifting charge, dwelling units. The package has taken care of all possible needs of the affected,” the official said.

According to sources, Mamata had proposed to include many of these facilities in the new land acquisition act when she was part of the UPA, but none of these was accepted.

“Now, as chief minister, she has offered all these facilities to the land-losers. If the package is accepted at the grassroots level, she would set an example across the country at a time when acquisition of land has become a problem throughout India,” a bureaucrat said.

Senior officials said the package was drafted carefully to ensure that the project did not face any resistance and the Opposition parties did not get a chance to build a movement.

“The chief minister knows the power of a movement against land acquisition and that’s why she has tried to sweeten the deal to the best of her ability,” a source close to Mamata said.

Making the Deocha-Pachami rehabilitation package attractive was important for the state government for two reasons.

First, out of a total of 21,000-odd affected people, 3,602 belong to SC communities and 9,034 belong to ST communities.

“The chief minister would not want to make these sections of people angry as they together have 28 per cent votes. Furthermore, evicting SC and ST people forcibly would send a wrong message about the ruling establishment in Bengal across the country,” a source said.

Second, the project is equally important for the ruling establishment as it would cut down the cost of electricity and help save money required to buy coal.

The project is also expected to generate more than 1 lakh direct and indirect jobs.

“For these two reasons, the rehabilitation package needed to be an attractive one. The package apparently covers all aspects. Importantly, the government has kept windows open to modify the project based on the demands from the local people,” said a senior official.Another official said that though the state government wanted to kick off the project on government land — Bengal has nearly 1,000 acres of the 3,400 acres of project area — it announced the rehabilitation package even before the work had started.

“People would know what they would get even before the project starts. There will be no confusion among the land-losers. This is a perfect approach on behalf of a government that wants to implement the project without a confrontation with the land-losers,” a source said.

The sources said the future of major projects in the state would depend on the acceptability of the rehabilitation package announced by the government.

“This is the first major project being taken up by the Trinamul government since coming to power in 2011 where a large number of people would be relocated. If the package is accepted by local people, it would open up opportunities for other projects in the state and the package could be accepted as a model,” an official said.