At the heart of various anti-industry agitations is the fact that governments and companies are joining hands without consulting the people whose lives these deals will impact.
If A signs a contract with B, is it binding on both? Sure. But if the pact says that B will build a house on land belonging to C, will the deal still be sacrosanct?
Tata Motors signed a similar deal with the Bengal government concerning land belonging to the farmers. It now expects the government to stick to it as if it were holy writ and refuses to return the 300 acres of land the farmers are asking for.
While Tata Motors can go to court and fight the government for going back on its word, so can the people of Singur. But unfortunately, the law itself conspires against these people as under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, it is a given that all land belongs to the government under the principle of eminent domain and the government can take it back whenever it feels it is for public purpose.
In Singur, the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, on September 25, 2006, acquired 1,000 acres of land under the Act.
The land, which was fertile and under cultivation, was taken in lieu of compensation. Owners of 400 acres of land refused compensation.
Tata Motors signed the deal with the Bengal government in 2007. The deal, being held sacrosanct now, is not in public domain. In fact, Tata Motors this week went to court to stop the Bengal government from revealing the “secret’’ contents of the deal to the people saying it would harm the company.
How can a deal between two parties which applies to property held by a third party be kept from the latter? Tata Motors now says that the government cannot tamper with the deal and the land allotted to it cannot be taken back.
Governments have in the past realised their mistakes and nullified deals.
The Sikkim government this year cancelled 11 hydel power plants that were allotted to various private companies. Two of the projects were cancelled because the Lepcha tribals continued to oppose these with relay hunger strikes for over 450 days. Four projects, Rangyong and Lingzyamm, Rokyal and Ringpi, were to come up in the Dzongu mountain, which is the native land of the Lepchas, besides falling inside a wildlife sanctuary. All the affected companies are said to have gone to court against the government, though no land has been acquired for any of these projects. The decisions may be annulled again.
The fault lies in poor investigation prior to the signing of the deals.
Governments are being caught unprepared again and again in situations where they get into deals concerning property belonging to the people without doing their homework. In the case of Tata Motors, the company admitted that it was assembling the Rs 1-lakh Nano car at various places and not just in Singur. That should have alerted the government into questioning the need for 1,000 acres of land at Singur.
Had that been done, the current stalemate and conflict with the people would have been avoided. Whether it is land acquired by Tata Steel in Kalinganagar, Gopalpur or Lohandiguda, or being acquired by ArcelorMittal in Orissa and Jharkhand, or by Vedanta or Posco, each of these is being opposed.
The deals are questionable as they leave out the party to whom the land belongs. Should the common man come into the picture only when a few deaths take place, as in Kashipur or Kalinganagar, or if a politician makes it his or her battle, as in Singur?
