The Allahabad High Court’s judgment quashing the land acquisition for the ADAG group power plant is more than just the issue of the UP government not following proper procedure. At the heart of this is the reluctance of Indian industry to pay farmers the correct price for their land.
The UP government did not notify what purpose the land was being acquired for, but even if it had, what are the chances the price would have been any closer to the market price? Very small. This is important since most major land acquisitions are proving to be difficult and a large number of projects, like the Tata Nano one at Singur, have had to be shelved due to this. Until Indian industry realises that it has to make farmers their partners, this will remain a big bottleneck.
Sanjiv Ahuja, New Delhi
