Mamata, Land, ISKCON & Opportunism
According to the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955, the limit of individual ownership of agricultural land for non-commercial purposes is 17.5 acres for irrigated areas and 24.5 acres for rain-fed areas. The limit on ownership of individual land in urban areas is 7.5 cottahs (1/10 acre).
West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee lifted the land ceiling restrictions to facilitate the construction of the ‘Maha Mandir’ of ISKCON, touted as the world’s largest temple. It is to be built over 200 acres. An international city is to be built over 750 acres.
“We will develop both Mayapur and Nabadwip as tourist destinations with all modern facilities. A pilgrimage centre known as ISKCON Town will be coming up soon on a 700-acre land adjoining the newly-built temple at Mayapur,” Miss Banerjee said. (The Statesman 5July, 2019)
ISKCON wanted 200 acres to build the international city. They tried for several decades but were unsuccessful. The Left Front government, of course, did not do anything to help them. Then Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister and changed the Land Ceiling Act to help the organisation acquire 750 acres, much more than their original demand. She did not stop here. She even waived the huge mutation fee (at the cost of a huge loss to the state exchequer) for the land (Video
youtube.com/watch?v=8OXcJ3ys…). She has also helped in improving the infrastructure of the area.
In return for all these favours that were doled out by the TMC supremo ISKCON authorities, as a mark of gratitude, released a video, before the crucial 2019 Parliamentary elections, appealing to its followers to consider carefully before casting their vote and to vote for the leader who has been a big help to them. (Video
youtube.com/watch?v=8OXcJ3ys…). ISKCON of course has disassociated themselves from this video. The video carries the logo of a newspaper whose owners (father and son) were sent to the Rajya Sabha by Mamata Banerjee.
Nothing is known about the original owners of the land that was handed over to ISKCON, nor is anything known about the compensation paid to the owners. If the land was owned by the government how much did ISKCON pay to the state government for this huge parcel of land ? Everything is shrouded in mystery.
Mamata Banerjee drove the Tatas out of Bengal because she did not want them to build the car factory, which would have given direct and indirect employment to lakhs and would have turned the state to an industry-friendly state, on 1000 acres. She wanted them to build the factory on 600 acres. According to her the 400 acres needed for ancilliary industries would be used to build beauty parlours and shopping malls. Then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya failed to explain what ‘ancilliary industries’ meant to Ms. Banerjee.