In all developed countries, the number of people depending on agriculture as a profession has progressively come down to about 5-6% of the population. If the country has to industrialise, the persons dependent on land have to be converted to persons depending on industry or services. How can this happen unless the farmers are persuaded to do so by becoming industrial land owners instead of agricultural land owners first? So the solution lies in not acquiring their land for industry but making them part owners of the industry coming up on their land. A recent example is Magarpatta township near Pune in Maharashtra where land owners pooled their land to form a land developers cooperative which gave contract to builders to develope it into a modern township with industrial parks, malls, Schools and housing. Why can not the West Bengal government help Singur farmers to form such a project and then ask Tatas to buy/rent real estate there? If they refuse, other industrialist will be too glad to grab that developed real estate.
