Land acquisition in West Bengal: Some issues

‘Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2013 was passed on 29 August 2013’ in the Lok Sabha and on 4 September 2013 in Rajya Sabha. The Bill tries to provide fair compensation to the land victims and assures rehabilitation to the evictees. There are many controversies regarding the process of land acquisition in the country specifically in the state of West Bengal. Based on the data collected by the author during 2011–2012 on an ICSSR funded project the paper argues that the nature of problems regarding land acquisition is quite different in this state in compare to the other states in the country. Compensation package offered so far to the affected people are highly inadequate and unless this inadequacy is removed, the political unrest and the resistance to industrialization cannot be handled.