Kolkata: CM Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday unveiled the state’s new industrial policy with focus on acquiring land for industries, generation of employment and incentivising investments in sectors like semiconductors, EVs, defence and advanced technology.Adhikari also said Bengal is in talks with commercial vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland for a possible investment in Singur, the site of former CM Mamata Banerjee’s land protests between 2006 and 2008 that propelled Trinamool Congress to victory over the Left Front in the 2011 assembly polls.The state administration also coined a new slogan, ‘Invest in Bengal, Grow in Bengal’, which Adhikari said reflects the new dispensation’s guarantee to give investors an “extortion- and fear-free” environment.“We are very clear about two things. We will not use police to forcibly acquire land. We will not allow bullets to be fired. We also won’t say we are the govt and we will not get involved in procuring land for industry,” Adhikari said, referring to his predecessor Mamata Banerjee’s hands-off land policy.The CM said the govt will buy land to create a land bank and is in talks with Hudco, Nabard and ADB for funding. “The govt is examining models in which farmers get a share of developed land, equity in companies, and priority in unskilled employment,” Adhikari said.However, the new policy does not show any marked deviation from existing urban and rural land ceiling laws. Earlier, a top official had indicated that govt might allow industries to hold land in excess of the ceiling.The CM said over the past six months the govt has handed over land to 33 business groups, including Amul, Vedanta and Reliance to set up new plants or expand existing operations. “We have handed over land to companies in Panagarh and Haringhata and several industrial parks,” he said.Adhikari added that govt has also facilitated land for proposals involving the Sanjiv Goenka Group in Haldia and recovered plots belonging to closed industrial units in the Barrackpore industrial belt. “Investments of Rs 1 lakh crore are in the pipeline over the next few months,” he said.The CM said companies that were allotted land by the previous govt but failed to initiate projects will be given three months to start the process, failing which the land will be taken back and the original purchase amount refunded.Adhikari also ruled out immediate payment of outstanding industrial incentives estimated at around Rs 50,000 crore. “We will take responsibility for incentives under the current policy made on or after May 9, 2026. The outstanding incentive amount is approximately Rs 50,000 crore, which cannot be borne by the govt at this moment,” he said, and added that pending dues will be considered only after the state’s finances turn surplus.He accused the previous govt of cheating industrialists and investors by failing to pay incentives on a regular basis. “If Rs 7,000-8,000 crore had been paid every year towards incentives, there would not have been a backlog of Rs 50,000 crore. This was an injustice to the investors,” he said.
