| If your land is being acquired, would you sell it to the government or industry?
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| That is what the two set of buyers offer, according to a decision taken by a group of ministers this week. Industry, which has to acquire 70 per cent of the land it needs, may pay more. It will pay the market value plus up to 60 per cent premium. The deal looks attractive. But think again. It may be attractive only in the short term. The government, on its part, may pay less as there is no cash advance in this case. But it will give the landowner a job, a share in the enterprise, a public hearing, a social impact assessment and all kinds of little props promised in the rehabilitation policy, which will soon become a law. In fact, the policy has clauses on relief to the landless too, besides access to a grievance redressal mechanism. For the landless, there is no deal if the land they depend on is acquired by industry. They can leave the village and look for jobs and homes elsewhere.
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| Now who would you prefer? While the rest of the world is talking about rehabilitation and relief, the ministers of the government of India have decided to consider it a closed chapter as far as land acquisition by industry is concerned.
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| A recent international workshop, "Global Best Business Practices: Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation," had people from the World Bank, the IFC and Indian industry talk about a fair, equitable and efficient land acquisition and resettlement policy for a smooth economic growth.
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For acquisition by the government, the draft of the rehabilitation law is ready after 60 years. The people who will now be left to bargain with industry for cash compensation are those who have not been able to protect themselves against the demands made on them by non-commercial interests in projects like dams, roads and highways. An all-India study being done by Indian Social Institute shows how the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, has been used over the years to evict people from their lands, owned either individually or by the community. The Act makes the government the owner of all the land it wants to acquire for public needs. According to Walter Fernandes, one of the authors of the study, no less than 50 million people have been displaced between 1951 and 1995 for various projects. Ten million people have lost their livelihood in Orissa, Jharkhand, Bengal and Andhra Pradesh alone. Dams have taken away the livelihood of 5 million people. The total figure for eight states covered by the study is 16.7 million.
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Displaced persons and persons affected by projects in 8 states | |
Total |
16.7 | |
Dams |
5.0 | |
Industry |
1.2 | |
Wildlife sanctuaries |
0.6 | |
Transport & Communications |
0.5 | |
Mines |
2.35 | |
(All figures in million) | | | |
Percentage of displaced people rehabilitated | |
Orissa |
32% | |
AP |
27% | |
Goa |
42% | |
(Source: Walter Fernandes , former director, Indian Social Institute) |
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| Figures for those who have received compensation also show a sorry state of affairs. No state can claim to have covered even 50 per cent of the displaced with rehabilitation of any sort.
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| There is no compensation for community-owned land or for the landless. So while projects come up in the poorest areas of the country, a majority of the landless lose their source of livelihood. So while it may be celebration time for a long-due rehabilitation Act, the fact that industrial acquisition will remain out of the law's purview is a cause for mourning for all those who will pay a heavy price for improving the GDP of this country through industrial investments.
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| Do we need so many martyrs when there is no war? |
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