Whose land is it anyway

Excerpts of Article published in October issue of ISSUES & CONCERNS

LAND ACQUISITION

WHOSE LAND IS IT ANYWAY?

By Vidyadhara, the author of ‘Sale of souls’ the only novel on land acquisition

Land is that part of human existence, on which he lives to survive and be part of it when he dies. Managing this wealth needs effective care, concern, and governance. The Indian pre Independent legislation on this subject was the Land acquisition Act of 1894, enacted by the colonial rulers, which was amended few times for infrastructural requirements of  the country. The right to property enshrined in the Indian constitution as a fundamental right under Article 19 and 31 was struck down with the Constitution 44^th amendment Act 1951 and a new Article 300 A, was introduced as a legal right.

The misuse of acquisition law, rose to an extent that the, land were acquired in excess and in some places for the real estate builders. In a case in Bangalore, the land acquired was de-notified and sold to the some powerful people. Under the pressure of intensive resistance from the landowners in the above cases and others, the then ruling UPA Government passed the new legislation of “The Right to fair compensation and Transparency in Land acquisition, rehabilitation, and resettlement Act 2013”. 

After the enactment of this legislation by the parliament, the industrial sector felt the law was tough and leaning towards the land owners. They represented that the 80% land owners coming to an agreement to sell the land is not only difficult but impossible. Realising this difficulty, the enthusiastic and dynamic new government passed the Ordinance to eliminate few important clauses in haste. 

The Ordinance of 2014, proposes to remove the section of preventing the acquisition of land of multiple crops. It provided also that the acquisition of land, for the projects listed in section l0 and the purposes specified therein, are exempted from the provisions of the consent of the villagers. It also inserts a provision of the clause to exclude the application of the provisions of Chapter II and III which exempts the affordable housing and housing for the poor people and industrial corridors from the ‘Social Impact Assessment’ and special provisions of food security. This could be interpreted to apply to any real estate and industrial projects amongst other things. It also fails to clarify the affordable housing and the industrial corridor. With these ambiguous provisions, any land in and around 1 Km from the road or railway could be acquired by the government. The affordable housing term could be rightfully used to facilitate the acquisition to facilitate the real estate industry. The time period of 5 years, to start the project also has been deleted. Also, the new ordinance states that the government sanction is necessary to prosecute civil servants who wilfully default.

All this attempt to amend the 2013 law, only indicates the interest to acquire the land from poor farmers to hand it over to the rich industrialists and the real estate builders in the name of development without providing the land losers any benefit. It brings into light the industrialists’ interest in land more than the industry itself. 

The decades of delay in the final court judgement, will fade away in the tears of the suffering land losers, leaving their offspring’s to fight for the amount turning out to be paltry after a prolonged court battle. It has been noticed, especially in Bangalore, that the land allotted for the industries 3 decades ago have been sold to big builders to construct shopping mall and the high rise apartment for the rich and famous.  The industrial houses should be encouraged to start the industry on the land acquired and owned by the government, but leased to the industry till the duration of operation of the industry. After the closure of the industry, the land should go back to the government or the rightful owner. 

Democracy is a collective responsibility, which should be carried over by all the parties in power and opposition and the citizens as a whole. The 2013 Act is reasonably a decent proposal to provide justice to the gullible villagers.The ‘Make in India’ philosophy of the present Prime Minister, is a welcome program for the investment hungry India. We need the development to go ahead in fast pace. There is no doubt about the commitment of our Prime Minister, but not all the people involved in land acquisition, will demonstrate his commitment and integrity. Being a democratic country, whatever, we want to achieve, we will not be able to beat the time. These laws are made for the lifetime of one or two generations, during which it passes through the hands of the good and bad people. Little caution will help save many families. Whether we like it or not, farmers and their land is an Indian reality, which we can’t abrogate in our path to progress.