A Paradigm Shift in Development Planning and Land
Reforms is Need of the Hour Not Further Acquisition and Cash Compensation
Commentary on Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement,
Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill, 2012
Amidst all the
controversies and conflicts related to Lokpal and Jan Lokpal politics, a very
major enactment (in Bill form) is soon to be tabled before the Cabinet for
approval and there after tabled in the Monsoon session of the parliament. While
this has been in the offing for last many years, people’s movements across the
country from farmers to fishworkers, landless workers to Dalits, adivasis as
well as urban poor, are closely watching and reacting or responding to every
move on the issue: Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation. The
much awaited new “Land Acquisition, Resettlement and
Rehabilitation Bill” has now been renamed “Right to Fair Compensation,
Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill, 2012 with
a claim to better reflect Government’s Commitment towards securing a legal
guarantee for the rights of project affected, and ensuring greater transparency in the land acquisition
process. It is also claimed that the Bill
will ensure, in concert with local institutions of self-government and Gram
Sabhas established under the Constitution, a humane, participative, informed,
consultative and transparent process for land acquisition.
The Bill has no
doubt sought comments and suggestions through the website but limited only till
30 days, as no regional or state consultations were held by Ministry for
Rural Development as was strongly suggested by NAPM, NFFPFW and many other
organisations across the country. This is a kind of disrespect shown to a large
number of organisations and millions of people engaged not only in conflict
over the issues of land, water, forest, minerals or aquatic wealth but also
proposing a new, truly democratic, just and sustainable ‘Development
Planning Act’ as an alternative since years.
Now that the
all party Parliamentary Standing Committee’s report (on Rural Development) on
the Bill is out and the Ministry of Rural Development has also made its views /
reactions clear and open, we, the people's movements, have taken serious
cognizance of the fact that the strong position taken by the Standing Committee
on certain critical issues are either diluted or rejected by the Ministry of
Rural Development, which is shocking. The Ministry that is supposed to
protect the rights and powers of the rural communities has not accepted some of
the standing committee recommendations, towards that end, which are presented
with our comments, herewith:
Food
Security and Agricultural Land Acquisition
1.
No forcible acquisition of agricultural land, for
non-agricultural purpose including single crop and multi crop land.
·
Ministry says only multiple crop land can be
excluded.
How can the
in-between farms that may be unirrigated, rain fed, single crop be left out, we
ask. India has 75% of the agricultural land as rain fed and most of it single
cropped. Such land is mostly held by Dalits, Adivasis and marginal farms.
Protecting them and all farm land for food security, which comes not from PDS
but self sufficient agriculture, is a must!
Acquisition
for Private and PPP Projects
2.
No forcible acquisition for private projects, or for
PPP, which can not to be categorized as public purpose projects.
·
Ministry has rejected this and justified this
with a provision that consent of 80% of project affected People will be sought
before acquisition for any private projects
In this era
of neo-liberal economic reforms, private projects with corporate investment and
interests are taking a much larger toll of land and other rich natural
resources as also uprooting by killing communities which are generations old. This
must come to an end and the same can happen only with stopping the State
playing a role of facilitator and land dealer. At the cost of the livelihood of
the nature based sections and working class section of society, the state can't
transfer the most valuable livelihood resources such as land, water to the
profiteering bodies in the garb of 'public interest' and 'public
purpose'.
Bringing
16 Central Acts Under Purview of this Bill
3.
The standing committee has recommended that all 16
central acts should be brought under the purview of the new act, to make all
equal before law (Article 14 of the Constitution).
·
Ministry of Rural Development wants to exclude
13 out of 16 Acts including Industrial Development Act, Land Acquisition
(Mines) Act, National Highways Act and others from the purview of the new act.
This means that 90% of the land acquired as on today will continue with
injustice and force used, with no change at all.
The standing
committee recommendations must be upheld to end brutal unjust acquisition for
all projects.
Role and
Consent of Gram and Basti Sabha
4.
The Committee asks
that all studies - SIA, EIA, expert committee appraisal be done in consultation
with the gram sabhas and the corresponding reports be made available to the
gram sabhas.
·
Ministry emphasises
that 80% consent of land loosers is there in case of acquisition for PPP and
private sector projects.
Consent and
direct involvement of majority of the Gram Sabhas must be there in each and
every project, including public projects for public purpose. 80% consent of the
land losers for the public - private
projects alone is not sufficient. Also, why should the linear projects be
left out? If it’s consent of 80% affected, there are to be a number of
manipulations that people will have to face. Experiences of 70% consent in Slum
Rehabilitation Scheme in Mumbai are quite telling.
Return of
Unutilised Land to farmers and Land Bank
5. The Committee recommended that
the land, if not used till 5 years, should be returned after 5 years from the
date of possession to the land owners.
·
Ministry
accepts the reduced five years time period but opposes its return to the
landowner and suggests it to go to State Land Bank.
The
ownership over the land is of those who till it and if not used and unutilized
then it must be returned to the owners or distributed amongst the project
affected people. We oppose any such feature which will promote land bank, since
it has promoted large scale acquisition in the past and later illegally
transferred the same land to corporations for real estate and other purposes.
Retrospective
Application of the Law
6. On the question of retrospective
application of the R&R provisions Committee has suggested to Ministry to
re-examine the issue and incorporate necessary provisions
·
Ministry
has not accepted it and refused to do so.
It needs to be noted that nearly
100 million people have been displaced since independence and with a dismal
17-20 percent rate of resettlement and rehabilitation we had suggested that not
only the retrospective application of the provisions of the new act but a National
Resettlement and Rehabilitation Commission be established to deal with the
claims of the projected affected people from various projects.
Resettlement and Rehabilitation
Benefits
In terms of the resettlement and
rehabilitation benefits Committee apart from suggesting some cosmetic changes
have accepted the provisions of the Bill, we think this is unfortunate since
provisions don't stand up to livelihood based R&R, it merely promotes the
principle of cash compensation. It will be a retrogressive step since it
negates the land and employment based R&R as mandated in the Narmada Water
Dispute Tribunal Award, and various other projects. The proposed provisions
of compensating employment with money and high rates for land acquired will
only lead to speculative land market and will destroy the fragile economy of
the rural hinterland which will lead to further urban migration.
Urban Eviction
The Bill and the comments by
both, Standing Committee as well as MoRD almost totally excludes and have
unaddressed the situation in the urban areas, where there is no land
acquisition, but eviction, brutal and unjust, for any and every elitist real
estate development to infrastructure without guaranteeing right to shelter,
right to life and livelihood.
The only provision is to compensate with 20% of developed land for land owning
families in urbanisation projects, which is not with regard to the cases where
land belongs to the government or private entities but people are evicted. We
demand a separate section or a separate act for the millions of the urban
persons and urban land from getting misappropriated. The Bill with the
presently proposed content need to be called only “Rural Bill”.
The rapacious use of Land Acquisition
Act 1894 by the government to secure land for ‘development’ projects has caused
over 100 million people to be displaced from their land, livelihoods and
shelters. The country is dotted with communities resisting State sponsored land
grab which resonate the demand for a just law to ensure that there is no forced
acquisition of land and resources, including minerals and ground water. The government must respond to the voices
from movements across places such as Narmada, Koel Karo, Singur, Nandigram, Sonbhadra,
Chindwara, Bhavnagarm, Kalinga Nagar, Kashipur, Raigarh, Srikakulam and mining
areas in central India with genuine efforts to address the longstanding crisis
concerning land Acquisition and resettlement & rehabilitation.
If the UPA government is serious
about addressing the conflicts over the land and other natural resources then
it must listen to the voices of those struggling or else it will only aggravate
these conflicts all across the country. The need of growth, infrastructure and
urbanisation can’t be fulfilled on the graveyard of millions. A
pro-people Development Planning Bill with complete participation of the Gram
Sabha will go a long way in stopping the massive corporate corruption
and lead to decentralization of power having an overall impact on the
politics of the country.
For
more details contact : - NAPM 6/6 Jangpura B, New Delhi - 110014
Madhuresh 9818905316
email : napmindia@gmail.com