Land Acquisition: Treading a treacherous path !

The land is the only thing in the word worth fighting for, worth dying for because it is the only
thing that actually lasts
The famous quote is apt in the Indian people and its struggle for property since time
immemorial. If we trace the history of the great Indian soil then in the later Vedic period land
was a commodity and people used to move from one place to another to grow crops,
consume them and then move to new pieces of land. During that period the kings used to
expand their kingdoms by Ashwamedha yagna where horses used to run and where the
horse stopped the land till their belonged to that kingdom.
When the Britishers came to India, Lord Cornwallis with the Permanent Settlement of 1793
made land a saleable commodity. It was the first time in Indian history that land could be sold
or bought. People during that time also used to pay taxes either in form of cash or kind or a
part of produce, like they earlier used to give it to Mughals or other rulers.
Now the concept of land in Indian culture is so emotional and sacred that Indians call it as
Motherland and few communities here treat land as god and even worship it.

When India got independence on 15th August 1947, we were left with crores of uneducated
people, their hazardous standard of living, history of plunder of Indian wealth and colonial
hangover. At that time we also had the fresh wounds of partition and the first prime minister
of India, Panditji had the main aim of wiping tear from every eye.
The founding fathers of Constitution put land under State list and Right to property was
made a fundamental right under Article 19 and Article31. But within early years of
independence we realised faults in it and made Right to property a
constitutional/legal/statutory right. Some major steps were taken by Pandit Nehruji in the
name of land reforms like land ceilings were fixed, land was redistributed among the
people so that people could do farming and earn basic living. Zamindari system was
abolished but not Zamindars which can be seen even today. This informal system have
exploited farmers to maximum in the name of government and is a classical example of
absent landlordism and also of colonial mentality.

Land acquisition a bane or boon is the buzz of the town. The first and foremost irony of the
political system is that it took 67 years to replace the 126 years old archaic law. The LARR
bill 2013 came into the scene when it was passed in 2014 and there was change of guard at
Centre later. The new government brought a new law introduced it in the lower house and
got it passed. On the other hand the ordinance has been promulgated thrice.

Before 2013, when LARR-2013 was not introduced, the 75 % of population is still waiting for
rehabilitation and compensation. People had been made to believe in dreams by the
government and administration but nothing has been changed on ground in the name of
schooling, housing, employment, poverty, etc. People are told to be given hefty
compensations but again compensation and people acted like two shores off a river. There is
a considerable amount of tribal people in the country which are been unsettled from their
places in the name of forest wealth and natural resources exploration. About 30 percent of
the tribal people are waiting for resettlement, rehabilitation and the main point here is that
they are made to live under open roof and unearthed from their own places, and for tribals
land is the most important and closest thing to the heart so they resort to violence which is
again a worst thing and makes the situation very tense.

In 2006, government at that time passed a bill regarding SEZ (Special

Economic Zone) under which land was to be acquired for setting up industries. If we
see the data of land acquired and used then out of the 1,46,000 hectares of land
acquired and used then out of the 1,46,000 hectares of land acquired in the past
decade, work has started on 10 percent of the land acquired only.

So these are the few important reasons which have led the common man to believe
that promises of the government have been shallow from time to time and nothing
has changed their living conditions. In India land is seen as a property to an extent
that it is been passed on from one generation to another and in the interior,
marriages are fixed based on land sizes, people who have large sizes of land are
living on it.

The new bill of 2015 has made some amendments to the previous bill of 2013 under
which the 13 other acts like that of land acquired for railways, minerals, mining,
exploration etc, have been brought under this bill so that a farmer could get a price of
land parallel to be given by a private acquirer and he does not feel alienated. The
demand for increased compensation is in buzz after the Yamuna expressway gave
compensation of Rs.2800 crores which was one of the highest in the world. There
are issues in this bill also like that of consent clause, social impact assessment and
projects exempted from it in the name of national security and infrastructure which
has convinced the common man that it is a old wine in the new bottle.

The other reason is that generationally the people have been thugged to such a high
level that suspicion has become their observation part while dealing with the
administration and government. For example, there are projects like dam

construction, bridge development which are 2-3 decades old and still they are in no
way near to completion.

The biggest suspicion of the people is that they feel the government is acquiring land
on behalf of big industrialists and corporate houses. Being optimistic it may be
possible that the intentions of this government are good. But mere intentions cannot
run or control a administration. The government should first win the hearts and minds
of the people and should revive the trust and confidence of people back into the
system. If this is won, people are convinced by telling them the advantage of it, by
explaining them their so called self claimed smooth process of getting compensation,
employment for one member of each family, etc

If these issues are solved by mutual understanding and if all this is implemented with
good mindset then this could do wonders. It is evident from the development stories
of the todays developed countries. I agree that one size fits all approach cannot be
applied everywhere but, yes the time is right to reduce burden on agriculture and
harness the demographic dividend of the nation.

One political leader was quoted saying to farmers, Your land will grow gold and do
wonders in the coming 15-20 years but the question here arises is should the farmer
deteriote his conditions for the next 2 decades so that he can get land prices more
than gold.

The lesson for todays government and administration is to acquire trust, than land
will be acquired smoothly and willingly. And it will be good if the new bill is passed by
taking the various state governments, PRIs and farmer unions on to board as it will
make our federal structure more strong and vibrant and bring in more acceptability
and yes it will also fulfil the dream of Gandhiji who used to say, Development starts
from villages and if villages are developed India can be developed.