Can the people have any hope of better livelihood as long as the state government patronises labour unrest?
Source: A Business Standard Commercial Feature on Goa, Gujarat and Maharashtra, June-July, 2003. Phenomenal advances have been made in the sphere of agriculture during this period, with West Bengal transforming itself from being a chronic heavy food-deficit state into one with surplus. It is today the highest rice producing state in the country. West Bengal contributed nearly 20 per cent of the increase in rice production in the entire country. The yield per hectare has also shown substantial increase. More than 90 per cent of the state’s agricultural holdings belong to marginal and small farmers, as a result of the success of Operation Barga. As a result of the successful implementation of land reforms, noted economist Dr Nilakant Rath, some time ago, analysed that while the growth in per capita net domestic product of the agricultural production between 1981-82 and 1994-95 went up by 22 per cent for the whole of India but in West Bengal it went up by a whopping 70 per cent. In 1981-8
