Within 24 hours of justifying the setting up industries, including special economic zones on agricultural land, Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus backtracked on Monday saying he had landed himself in trouble for speaking without knowing the ground realities in West Bengal.
"I think I have landed myself in trouble with my comment on Sunday. I hope opposition parties here will not take me amiss," he said. Yunus told a press conference that he did not have thorough knowledge of the 'ground realities' in West Bengal and his comment on acquisition of farmland for industries was a 'theoretical proposition'.
"Peasants will have to part with their lands for setting up industries which will lead to economic growth," and there was
no scope for dispute over SEZs, Yunus said on Sunday.
However, on Monday, Yunus said he had no idea that farmland acquisition was such a controversial issue in the state. "I simply do not have the facts and will not venture any assessment of the current situation in West Bengal."
"From the newspapers on Monday, I came to know that it is a hotly-debated issue," he said. The Bangladeshi economist, however, said "I believe under no circumstances land should be acquired hurting the interests of farmers."
There was no denying that agricultural farmland had to be acquired for setting up industries, he said. "But the whole exercise depends on the kind of industries to be set up and also the the type of land that has to be acquired."
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