Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND INDUSTRIALIZATION: A CASE STUDY OF - PLANNING AREA OF DISTRICT,

Jhantu Mondal Assistant Professor of Geography Dr. B.N.D.S Mahavidyalaya Hatgobindapur, Burdwan West Bengal,

Abstract

The pace of industrialization in is very slow. Barjora and Gangajalghati planning area has been created for the economic development of this region. Presently there is a number of small and medium scale industries located in this region. After agriculture, industry is the main economy of this region. As the region is also rich in agriculture there is plenty of scope of development of agro based industries. The present paper emphasized on the present scenario of industrialization in the region and also highlighted the problems and future prospects of industrialization in this region.

Key Words: Economic Growth, Industrialization, Planning area, Bankura

Introduction

The West Bengal Town & Country (Planning & Development) Act, 1979 has been operating within the whole state of West Bengal, except in the area comes under the Cantonment Act, 1924 since 1979, with an objective to promote planned development in both rural and urban areas. On 21st day of September.1992, the Development and Planning (Town and Country Planning) Department of Government of West Bengal had enacted this act in some parts of Barjora and Gangajalghati Police Stations under Sadar Subdivision of District Bankura vide the notification no. 2990/T&CP/1S-3/91. This area was declared as Planning Area under section 9 of the said Town Planning act vide notification no 2991/ T&CP/ 1S-3/91 on the same date. Subsequently Barjora Ganjalghati Planning Authority was also constituted on that day vide notification No 2991/ T&C P/1S-3/91 and the District Magistrate of Bankura was declared as the Planning Authority. With the technical consultation of the experts of the Town & Country Planning Branch, the district authority with the support of concerned blocks has able to prepare the Present Land Use Maps and Land Registers of the entire planning area under section 28 of WBT&CP Act, 1979 and in compliance of the directives in the section 29 of the said act finally notified (757/DPC) those documents in the official gazette on 31st day of October, 2003.

Barjora Gangajalghati Planning Area is located within close proximity of the Asansol Industrial Region is separated by the river Damodar, flowing from East to West. Government had taken initiatives to develop Durgapur as a planned Industrial town that helped Durgapur to consolidate its place as one of the most promising Industrial Town of West Bengal during the second half of the last century. But in Bankura, one of the backward districts of the state, the scenario was totally different. The pace of industrialization in this district has been very slow. Except Mejia Thermal Power Station no other heavy industry has come up. Only at Barjora non municipal urban centre and its adjoining area a few medium size industries are in operation. In the last decade

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Development & Planning (Town & Country Planning) Department of Government of West Bengal had decided to enforce the existing state Town Planning Act in this region like its counterpart Asansol-Durgapur coal steel belt where this act is in operation since early eighties of last century.

Location of the Study area

Barjora-Gangajalghati planning area lies in between 23 23' and 23 31' north of latitude and in between 87 05' and 87 20'east of longitude. Barjora Gangajalghati Planning Area is located at the northern part of the Bankura District consisting of 44 mouzas under Borjora Panchayet Samity and 38 mouzas under Gangajolghati Panchayet Samity. The river Damoder marked the northern boundary of this planning area.

LANDUSE MAP OF BARJORA GANGAJALGHATI PLANNING AUTHORITY

Source: B.L.R.O, Bankura

Objectives

The major objectives of the present study are

i.To trace the history of development of this area as a planning area

ii. To assess the present industrial scenario of this planning area

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iii. To evaluate the future aspects of this planning area

Materials and Methods

For assessing the economic growth and industrial development of this region, various secondary data has been collected from B.L.R.O office of Bankura district. Block level data related to different small and medium scale industry has been collected from the Block development office of Barjora and Gangajalghati block. Based on the data collected some tables and charts has been prepared for better visualization and understanding of the region.

Results and Discussion

Present Industrial Scenario

Since 1990, there are many small and medium scale industry has been established in this planning area (Table-1)

Table-1 Small and medium scale industry in the planning area

Seria Name of the Name of Location Date of Environment Employme l Factory the establishmen al status nt Product t generated 1 X-Pro India BOPP Kadasol April,91 Red 172 film 2 Neelkamal Moulded Kadasol July,99 Green 58 Plastics furniture 3 Hindustan Mosquito Birsinghap Novembar,9 Special Red 167 Seals repeller coils ur 9 4 Kangsabati Textile Dejuri July,93 Orange 308 Co-op spinning Spinning Mill 5 Kero Monolithi Deucha May,90 Green 27 Rajendra c monolithics refratories 6 Satabdi Monolithi Saharjora November,9 Green 9 monolethics c 9 refractorie s 7 Spark Mosquito Birsinghap July,99 Orange 177 Exports repeller ur Limited coils 8 Durgapur Flour Sahebdihi September,9 Green 36 flour mill mill 6 9 Bengal Stoneware Sahebdihi November,9 Red 59 Stoneware pipes 8 10 Tuff Tubes PVC Dejuri 1992 Red 34 pipes

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11 Quality Refractor Paharpur 1984 Red 20 chemical & y brick storage 12 21st Refractor Paharpur April,2000 Red 13 century y ceramics work 13 Sarada Rice Rice Deucha January,02 Orange 23 Mill processing

In Barjora and its adjoining area, significant impacts of industries of construction materials are also present. Adjacent to river Damodar there is Brick Manufacturing units concentrated at Krishnanagar Mouza (Table-2). There is a good number of Stone Crushing Units, fairly distributed at Barjora and its surroundings have already emerged (Table-3). For loading and unloading services in such type of industries and its related transportation sectors a fairly large numbers of labours are engaged.

Table-2 Brick fields in the planning area Serial no Name of the unit location Environmental Status Employment 1 Binda Brick Works Krishnanagar Orange 50 2 Kusum Brick Krishnangar Orange 70 Works 3 Kumar Brick Krishnangar Orange 125 Works 4 Sham Brick Works Krishnangar Orange 45 5 Milan Brick Works Krishnangar Orange 35 6 Kajal Brick Works Krishnangar Orange 35 7 Kiran Brick Works Krishnangar Orange 42 8 Mukta Brick Krishnangar Orange 70 Works 9 Bidhan Brick Krishnangar Orange 70 Works

Table-3 Stone crushing units within planning area Serial no Name of the unit Location Environmental Status Employment 1 Barjora Stone chips Barjora Red 16 2 Banerjee Stone syndicate Barjora Red 25 3 Modern Stone crushing Ghutgoria Red 18 4 Bugrai Stone crushing Ghutgoria Red 18 5 Mondal Industry Barjora Red 13 6 Ma Durga Stone crusher Monohar Red 14 7 Stone syndicate Maliara Red 10 8 Ghosal Stone crusher Ghutgoria Red 23 9 Biswakarma Stone crusher Ghutgoria Red 17

In Barjora commercial activities played another significant role and already attained the status of non municipal urban centre where. Existence of oil and flour mills at Barjora is the illustration of this reputation (Table-4).

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Table-4 Oil & flour mills in the planning area Serial no Name of the mill Location Environmental Status Employment 1 MK Oil & Flour Barjora Green 4 Mill 2 Rakshya Kali Oil Barjora Green 4 Mill 3 Radheshyam Mill Maliara Green 3

The planning area has a significant coverage of forest area. Saharjora forest is located adjacent to Barjora. The transitional character of Barjora is supported by the presence of saw mill (Table-5). Table-5 Saw mills in the planning area Serial no Name of the unit Location Environmental Status Employment 1 Biswakarma Saw Barjora Orange 3 mill 2 New Saw mill Barjora Orange 4

The location of Industries in the the planning area distinctly establishes the potentiality of Barjora as industrial Growth Centre. Most of the industries are situated within 3 kilometres radius from Barjora non-municipal town (Table-6). Maliara is appearing as another potential urban sub centre but it is not likely to achieve the industrial activity scale of Barjora and its immediate hinterland.

Table-6 Industrial concentration at barjora & its surrounding environs Location Uni PVC Spinn Mosq Spon Refract Ri Sto Ston Oi Sa Bri ts & ing uito ge ory ce ne e l w ck Poly mer Texti repell Iron Mi war crush M Mi Fie le ent ll e er ill ll ld Kadasol 3 2+1* Birsingha 4 1* 2 1* pur Deucha 2 1 1 Dejuri 2 1 1 1 Sahebdih 1 1* i Saharjora 1 1 Paharpur 2 2 Ghutgori 4 4 a Barjora 8 1* 3 2 2 Maliara 2 1 1 Manohar 1 1 Krishnan 9 9 agar *represents incoming industries

Recent decision of setting up of an industrial estate is also within close proximity of this urbanizing centre has been taken (Table-7).

Table-7 Industries in the pipeline within the planning area Serial Name of the Name of the Location Environmental no Facotry Product Status 1 Times Pact Poly Bag Kadasol Green

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2 Barjora Corrugated Birsingha Green Packaging Box pur 3 Rishov Sponge Sponge Iron Barjora Special Red 4 MB Ishpat Sponge Iron Birsingha Special Red Copn pur 5 Govinda Impex Sponge Iron Sahebdihi Special Red

Although Ganghalghati is an industrially backward area but the existing thermal power plant at this block has changed the dimension of the industrial potentiality of this region. The scenario of development of this region has changed after the construction of Mejia Thermal Power Station (MTPS). It is located within the jurisdiction of Gangajalghati Block covering Latiabani (JL 30), Machbandha (JL 31), Benagari (JL 32), Durlovpur (JL 33), Nidhirampur (JL 34), Nandanpur (JL 41), Panktor (JL 12) and Bankadaha (JL 27) mouzas. In 1986, the construction of Mejia Thermal Power Station was started over an area of slight more than thousand hectares, which was acquired by Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for this purpose. The generation of power was begun in March, 97 when the 1st Unit with the capacity of 210 MW has started the power generation. The 2nd and 3rd Unit of same (210 MW) capacity has been in operation from March, 98 and September, 99 respectively. The next unit of same capacity (4th) is now under construction.

So far employment generation is concerned this figure does not have that much significance as it was expected in terms of capital labour ratio (Table-8).

Table-8 Industrial employments in the planning area Type of industry Number of units Employment Employment /unit Plastic & Polymer 3 264 88 Refractory 4 69 17 Mosquito repeller coil 2 344 172 Spinning mill 1 308 308 Stone Ware 1 59 59 Rice mill 1 23 23 Flour mill 1 36 36 Oil mill 3 11 4 Saw mill 2 7 4 Stone Crushing Unit 9 144 17 Brick field 9 542 60 MTPS 3 1250 417 Total Units 36 3057 85

Problems

The industrial problems are economic, social, legal, psychological, demographic, technological, occupational, educational and complex in nature. Due to lack of the current industrial situation reveals the following industrial problems:

1) Shrinkage in employment 2) Inadequate productive investment 3) Rising cost. 4) Absence of plans or programme for expansion.

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5) Lack of adaptability of labour towards a changing situation. 6) Inadequate transport facilities for industrial goods to and from nearest marketing centre.

Future prospects

In this micro region, cottage and Small Scale Industries constitutes a major segment of the economy. It provides most of the employment opportunity next to agriculture and around 10% of total employment of the district is in this sector. In this planning area the most common handicraft item is fishing hooks. Barjora Panchayet Samity in technical collaboration with CMPDI, Durgapur, has been running a project at Ghutgoria, the village famous in this region as a hub of skilled artisans. It is clearly establishes that there is ample scope of development of this sector with the provision of modern technology and other infrastructural facilities., The other popular handicraft of making of synthetic bangles, on which sizeable households of Ghutgoria and its adjoining villages are still economically dependent, requires immediate attention for betterment. Bankura is one of the major LAC producing districts in West Bengal and Gangajalghati is one of the potential blocks for LAC cultivation. A substantial number of employments can be generated by increasing the area of LAC cultivation and also by providing adequate supports as for raw materials and marketing.

Conclusion

Despite having some problems related to industrialization in this region, many of them can be minimized with the help of the local administration. There are plenty of future scopes of establishment of newer industries in this region. Formation of Barjora and Gangajalghati as planning area has changed the economic condition of this region. Barjora is presently a census town has very much potential of becoming a statutory town in the near future. As the district has a strong traditional agro economy base, serious efforts towards the development of agro based industries may further improve the economy of the planning area.

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