Kolkata, Sep 15 - Days after West Bengal scrapped an IT township project, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) Tuesday said the Left Front government needs to 're-prioritise' its policy of allocating land for industry and more importance should be given to information technology.

NASSCOM chairman (eastern region) V.V.R. Babu told mediapersons here: 'May be, due to the logjam we are in, the government needs to re-prioritise its policies in land allotment.

'Priorities of allocation order are decided by the state government. There is enough land. There is lot of land earmarked in Rajarhat-Newtown area for real estate. The government has to realise that going for IT is better for economic development,' Babu said.

His comments come after the state government also cancelled land allotment to IT majors like Infosys and Wipro at Rajarhat in the city's north eastern fringes following the Vedic Village land controversy.

Babu pointed out that for every direct job created in the IT sector, four jobs are created in the downstream industries.

Both Babu and NASSCOM president Som Mittal said the state government should try to allocate land to IT companies in and around Kolkata and not in the IT hubs at Durgapur in Burdwan district or Siliguri in Darjeeling district.

'We (IT companies) need land in Kolkata. We will go to Siliguri or Durgapur, but the first preference is Kolkata,' said Mittal.

'A minimum of 25 acres is needed for an SEZ. If less amount of land is allotted then the companies cannot set up SEZs. In that case they will go out of the state,' he said.