Land disputes and displacement issues in Gujarat have been far less ‘bloody’ compared to states like Orissa and West Bengal. The credit for this, to an extent, goes to the long tradition of giving land at only market prices to industrial houses, with a similar compensation to land-losers, besides lesser interferences of the government in such matters.
Besides, Naxalite movements have been ‘unheard of’ in Gujarat. Some silent protests have been raised in the past by farmers and land-sellers against industrial projects. However, they have waned without ever growing into an armed agitation. Also, there have not been any major issues of displacement due to industrial land acquisition by the government.
“The poor of Gujarat have been more Gandhian than the state, it seems. They believe in engaging in a dialogue to resolve matters,” said Navdeep Mathur, who teaches at IIM, Ahmedabad.
One of the largest displacements likely soon, he says, is in the Sabarmati Riverfront Project, a state government project. “There has been a lot of under-counting and many people are not likely to get rehabilitation,” according to him. Surveys by non-government bodies say 38,000 families are likely to get displaced.
The Sardar Sarovar Project, another very controversial one, saw displacement of thousands of people. While a lot of people have been rehabilitated, social activists associated with the Narmada Bachao Aandolan are still fighting for the project-affected. But even here, there was no violence.
Most of the land acquisitions in the state are done directly by industrial houses without direct intervention from the government, said a senior state government official.
“Whenever the government has facilitated in buying land for industrial purpose, the existing market price is paid to the land sellers,” he said.
State-owned Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) has developed a huge land bank over the years and most of the land given to industries is by GIDC, so there is no issue of displacement, he added.
“The land given to private players is usually barren. Also, a lot of land has been given in areas like Kutch (which is arid), so farmers of Gujarat are usually unaffected by such acquisitions,” said an official of a leading business house that has been allotted government land for a special economic zone (SEZ) near Ahmedabad.
In a recent development, agitation was held by locals against Nirma’s million-tonne cement project at Mahuva near Bhavnagar.
“The company had sent notices to various farmers in the region to acquire agriculture land. Notices were served for acquisition of 28,000 bighas and more land could have gone into development of the project. But, the project has been halted following the agitation against the cement plant led by Kanubhai Kalsaria, the MLA from the ruling BJP,” said noted Gandhian Chinubhai Vaidya.
