The draft Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 circulated two months ago for public comments was a significant step forward but the amended version tabled in Parliament recently is two steps back. A thorough overhaul of the archaic Land Acquisition Act was overdue. To his credit, Jairam Ramesh, Cabinet Minister for Rural Development, proposed a new bill with progressive changes and put it up for public consultation. The draft had commendable features such as mandatory public discussion and enhanced compensation. It also had its share of shortcomings such as a dubious definition of ‘public purpose.' True to form, the United Progressive Alliance government has diluted the provisions that would have clearly benefited farmers. The most regressive move is the reduction of the compensation amount. Poor management of land records and the undervaluing of properties have been impediments to determining a just compensation amount. Much of the dissatisfaction and protest of farmers across the country has been on this account. Responding to this, the draft circulated for public discussion recommended increasing the registered value of a property six-fold in rural areas and two-fold in urban areas. Unfortunately, the bill tabled in Parliament has reduced it by one-third in rural areas, leaving the compensation amount unchanged in urban areas.
The draft was certainly more equitable. It not only tried to compensate landowners, but also proposed to extend the resettlement and rehabilitation benefits to all the tenants and agricultural labourers dependent on the land. The bill introduced in Parliament restricts the benefits to those who have been living or working in the place for more than three years prior to acquisition. Such a cut-off date is arbitrary and may keep a substantial number of people out. As past experience has shown, it also bristles with practical difficulties. The draft was particular about protecting fertile, irrigated multi-crop lands and prohibited their acquisition — but the bill allows for that. Though such acquisition is limited to a maximum of five per cent of the total irrigated multi-cropped area in that district, in terms of absolute extent this could get damagingly large, particularly in the bigger districts. Moreover, fertile lands can be acquired for private companies using this provision. If the UPA government presses ahead with these dilutions, it will be clear that all the rhetoric and posturing in Bhatta Parsaul and Singur were only for opportunist political gain. If it is serious about enacting just and defensible land acquisition legislation, the well-conceived provisions of the earlier draft must be restored.
Comments:
It will interesting to see what stand is taken by the opposition parties on the proposed dilutions. All political parties are expert in singing platitudes. However, when it comes to specifics, they show their true colours. UPA has disappointed the farmers, will NDA follow suit?
Ok, so farmers are back in the dump again. It's really disappointing that when something good is going to be done to the backbone of the nation - which is already ailing - something like this just messes it up.Our politicians are broad-minded no doubt but they chose to be narrow minded when it comes to the cause of the farmers, for them a farmer suicide is nothing when compared to some other political rhetoric like disrupting the parliamentary proceedings un-necessarily.And you know what the sad part is out of the 60-65% population in the country (which is mostly farmers and their family), only a fraction is aware of this bill and its provisions. This lack of penetration gives enough platforms for political parties to take adv of the farmers aggression and garner it for political clout.
I don't understand the need to change the compensation from first bill to the tabled one. For people the most affecting issue is the compensation that is being paid. Reducing the compensation is going to affect them badly.
Despite the dilutions to the draft bill, Mr Jairam Ramesh has credited the proposed Bill's "key features" to the valuable inputs from Mr Rahul Gandhi, as reported in the media. It looks as though a kind of competition is going on within the Congress to project him to the public as a very capable "heir apparent" to please his mother and as a byproduct derive some advantage to themselves from the Congress President.
The parilament mostly enacts such sham laws. Thats why in our country though we have laws for all the issues nothing gets sorted out. If Anna Hazare kind of people protest against it then the talk of Parliament is supreme and Anna Hazare is black mailing etc will come up in the Media. I am sure some these media outlets are singing the govt tunes just to get thier bottomlines covered through advt from govt agencies. May be more benefits..who knows what???
Land is required for development there is no doubt in that, but at the same time we need plan for the effective utilisation of the lands. The land should be acquired subject to the real need of the proposal. There are many examples that many Pvt. concerns occupy the land above thier requirements. If the land is acquired for any business purpose (bot for Govt. & Pvt.)it should get the clearence from the community. Instead of public hearing, where most political cowards will play the drama. door to door survey should be done through some selected institutes from each states. Scoio economic impact assessment has to be done prior to the acquisition and rehabilitation should be under the purview of the district collector or govt. apointed nodal officer (for Pvt. too) Compensation amount has to be increased, if the organisation spend crores for its business let them spend for the land also. Employment opertunity should be ensuered.
The UPA government appears to be in no mood to learn a lesson or two from the country-wide massive demonstration against its missteps, mis-governance or absence of governanace. The political authority may trigger another storm of violent protests and another series of agatitaions that would cause loss of lives or destruction of properties, as we witnessed recently in Norhtern Kerala and in Andhra Pradesh, if they dilute the draft Land Acquisition bill. The days the people were allured by rhetorics and cowed down by threats are over. Thanks to the marvellous spread of digital technology, peolple gain easy access to information and rules. Transparency has become universal in the governance process. The citizens are well aware of their rights now. If the powers that be think they can hoodwink the people, they live in a fool's paradise. Let the UPA government take the cue from the upheavals the Lokpal bill sparked off and desist from pushing the diluted bill thruogh the Parliament.
I think, it is time now to mobilise public opinion to pressurise the government to redefine the term 'land acquisition'. At present, the whole of the processes concerned is being managed by a set of politicians and bureaucrats who act with vested interests, favouritism towards some and vengeance towards others. Truth, law and justice are no concern for them. The level of corruption is so high. The poor and small land holders are the sufferers. There is no machinery to compare these sufferings with the ultimate gains from any project. One should not forget that people feel possessive of land including for emotional reasons. The land acquisition processes should be reduced to one of simple sale and purchase which should invariably be negotiated between the seller and the purchaser. Heavens are not going to fall, if government is stripped off the power to acquire land.
Commendable article by Hindu.Both C's are missing in this land acquisition bill tabled in the parliament i.e. greater compensation and effective consulatation(consultation with those all affected by acquisition).Farmers are backbone of our Indian economy and they must not be neglected in any case.Just compensation for land aquisition is the need of the hour and the farmers and poor people affected should not get only just compensation but also the employment opportunity should be assured to weaken the griefs.Also the vague defintion of public purpose must be cleared in the parliament and the public purpose should not be utilised by private companies to reap the benifits for their own use.In this globalistion era we do accept the fact that urabanisation of indian rural areas is happening at an enhanced rate but the urbanisation should not be done at the mere griefs of our hard working farmers.Government must table the earlier proposed draft bill to win the greater confidence of people.
Perhaps Mr Manmohan Singh will shunt Jairam Ganesh from the ministry to yet another and an insignificant one. So he can do less or nothing revolutionary.
It is a known fact that any law relating to land acquisition should be lucid & understood by any layman as the majority affected is from the lower strata of the society. And most of them do not in the normal course know the implications . Many a time the provisions are interpreted differently which leads to confusion.The foremost thing is to make sure the law is made as simple as possible & clearly understood by one and all so that a uniform formula is applied to all the states & followed on an all India basis!
Article is an eye-opener for everyone. It is rightly predicted in one of the article that the future is of grains not guns.If we keep focusing on developing our economy only through greater industrialisation instead of the fact that we are an agriculture based economy,we are going to follow the same path as of developed but distressed economies and same consequences. Agriculture is the backbone of our true existence.Bringing the strong bill on table will rightly protect the irrigated lands from corrupt people.If we really want to develop as a stable nation then we also have to boost up the rural economy equally with true intention.
I think that govt should first ban further acquisition of land for indefinite period until and unless it has resettled & rehabilitated everyone who has been displaced since 1947. Once Government resettles & rehabilitates them, government can make claims of "rehabilitation & resettlement" as I think that currently government has no expertise in this work. Also, let local bodies have greater say in land acquisition processes. If government is really interested in industrialization then it is having large swathe of unused land. Not only this, a large no of land taken for industrialization are underutilized. Also government has no credibility in externality management related to Land Acquisition, so it should first train its officials.
ADB(Asian Development Bank) has predicted that Indian economy in the year 2011 to 2012 is going to be affected by overheating,the condition when GDP growth remains steady to improve the financial condition of the people but the agricultural products reaches very high level. Thoughtless acquisition of multi-crop land can not be justified at the cost of billion of people. The archaic land acquisition bill is in the dire need of reformation.
there should be a clear and precise definition of market rate of land that is to be acquired..
Please Email the Editor