16-07-2013, 04:22 PM
LAND ACQUISITION ---- STATUS REPORT FOR THE PERIOD JAN-JUL 2012
STATUS REPORT .docx (Size: 51 KB / Downloads: 53)
INTRODUCTION :
India's GDP growth has slumped to 6.5% in 2011-12, the lowest in the last nine years. Economists have attributed the fall among other reasons to poor performance in land acquisition. The partial list of projects stalled or shelved due to land acquisition which made head lines during the last 4 months is given in Annexure I.
According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy , 500 projects entailing a total investment of over Rs 5,00,000 crores were shelved or put on hold during 2011-2012. 10 of the top 20 projects have been put off because of land acquisition related problems. Human rights groups argue that the problem of land acquisition is due to wrong policy of the government since independence. According to them between 60 and 65 million people have been displaced in India since Independence out of which 60% were displaced internally which is the highest number of people uprooted for development projects in the world. The Working Group on Human Rights in India and the UN (WGHR) claim in their recent report that of these displaced, over 40% are tribals and another 40% consist of dalits and other rural poor. They claim out of over 60% victims of internal displacement only around 25% were resettled and most of those forcibily evicted headed to cities and many thereafter became victims of multiple displacement.
Reaction of the Project affected People :
A study by the Behavioral Science Centre of St Xaviers College, Ahmedabad has claimed in their findings and conclusions that land acquisition from the marginalized in the name of development and in favour of the private players has created complete discourse and social unrest among the poorer strata of the Society. Thus the Gujarat Model of land acquisition is witnessing ‘Non-inclusive’ growth and development. Elsewhere in India also, the law and order is a major issue where-ever land is under acquisition by the government machinery.
The partial list of violent activities recorded in various parts of the country is listed below :
1. 13 tribals were killed when they were protesting the construction of boundary wall of Tata Steel project in Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district six years back.
2. One person was killed and 25 injured in clashes when opponents objected to the coastal road leading to the POSCO project site.
3. Angul villagers protest land acquisition of fertile land and forest cover for power plant
4. Farmers stop work of Nabinagar power plant work in Bihar.
5. Villagers in greater Noida abducted 3 officials of UP road transport corporation in protest against land acquisition.
6. Construction company employee killed , IDCO officials attacked and POSCO officials detained in separate incidents in connection with land acquisition.
7. A section of farmers of village Gorakhpur protesting the acquisition of land for setting up of a nuclear power plant allegedly held hostage revenue officials .
8. Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene have warned the state government that proposed acquisition of 2.16 lakh acres of agricultural land for setting up industries will lead to food crisis in near future
Reaction by the Peoples representatives and activists:
1 According to human rights activist Medha Patkar, who has been at the forefront of the Narmada Bachao Andolan. The Land Acquisition Rehabilitation And Resettlement Bill 2011 is not intended to minimize displacement and does not address human rights. According to her internal displacement is not a natural calamity but a political calamity.
2. Humans rights law Network (HRLN) and NER legal resource centre has protested against , the arbitrary fixation of land compensation rates, the increasing conversion of community forests into Reserve Forests by the Department of Forest and Environment, implementation of Tribal Rights Act, marginalisation of the indigenous people due to the big projects, unawareness on the Land Acquisition Acts and policies and non-inclusion of NGOs and pressure groups during formulating policies . The issue of land has always been the touchiest subject for all tribal people across the world, including the people of Arunachal Pradesh. Encompassing forests, jungles, hills, mountains, streams and rivers, each village and tribe has stories of wars and clashes with neighbouring villages and tribes erupting from land disputes. According to them the time has reached to a point that the each neighbouring tribe and village has their own demarcated boundaries of the community lands and water bodies. The absence of legal documents by the tribals to prove their ownership of the land they have lived on for centuries is of prime concern of people of Arunachal.
Reaction from the Industry to the Current bill:
The Federation of Indian Chambers of commerce and Industry (FICCI) feels that the current bill restricted oppurtunities for land owners to sell land to the private industry. The bill has overlooked the fact that there are a large number of people who would like to move out of agriculture and sell their land. According to the industry lobby, in the last decade rural population increased by 12% whereas urban population increased at the rate of 32%. While in 2001 rural population constituted 72% of the total population in India, in 2011 it constituted 68.8%. Also , average size of the operational holding in agriculture declined by 46% in 2005-2006 to 1.23 hectares from 2.28 hectares in 1970-1971. The decline can be attributed to conversion of land for Industrialisation or transfer to meet the requirement of non-agricultural purpose. FICCI has therefore suggested that private companies should be allowed to purchase the land directly from the land owners after paying market based compensation . It also wants cap on the R & R at 30-40 % of the land acquisition cost. The reform in land acquisition Act if implemented will be a huge setback to the private sector which is a major player in India’s construction sector. FICCI is urging the parties concerned to think over the implications of the proposed Act. There is also a need for fair degree of self-regulation and reduction in use of cash.
Land Aqusition Abroad : [/b]
The Worldwatch Institute in Washington DC, a global environmental think-tank, reports that India is among the three emerging economies, along with Brazil and China, that is “grabbing” the most land elsewhere. India figures among the top three countries in the world which have bought or leased land in other countries. Between 2000 and 2012, Indian firms have acquired almost 7.4 million hectares in 129 separate deals. It acquired these tracts of land for agriculture, forestry for wood or fibre, industries and mineral extraction, including petroleum. Indonesia tops the list over the same period, with 8 million hectares. Below India ranks the US, with just over 4 million hectares, followed by China and the UK. India also figures among the 10 top countries in which other countries have bought or leased land. As many as 4.6 million hectares have been transacted in 113 separate deals, as of April this year. Worldwatch report is based on Land Matrix project — a coalition of 45 NGOs — which has released the largest data base of such transactions, covering 1,006 deals over 70.2 million hectares. Africa's land is attracting unprecedented commercial interest from neighbouring Qatar all the way to South Korea. Around 53m ha - roughly the size of France - has been sold, leased or licensed globally since 2001, and that only covers deals with reliable sources. The true figure could be over 200m ha. Just under half of aquired land is in Africa, with greater demand for large-scale land in 2009 than in two decades of previous expansion. Sudan, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique are among the main destinations. Among the Indian companies are Reliance Industries and Reliance Infrastructure, Vedanta Alumina and Vedanta Sterlite Industries, Tata Motors, Adani, Jindal Power and Steels. There are many public sector and state-owned enterprises who also figure in such deals. Given the European Union’s target to use renewable energy for 10 per cent of the fuel used in transport by 2020, there is a big drive all over the word to grow jatropha. Mission NewEnergy, an Australian company, has taken up contract farming in India for this reason. The spike in world food prices in 2008 also lead to the large-scale acquisition of land to grow crops. The Journal of Peasant Studies in the UK reports that across the world, ecosystems are for sale. For example, supporters of the Nature Conservancy and the African Wildlife Foundation are now invited to ‘adopt an acre’ — or perhaps 50 acres (20.234 hectares) — for $1,750 in order to protect valuable wildlife heritage from human-induced degradation. The web portal, Ecosystem Marketplace, offers information updates and investment and price trend data on carbon, water and biodiversity markets. All these are also being reffered to as ‘green grabbing — the appropriation of land and resources for to alleviate pressure on forests and for other environmental ends and not just for efficient farming or food security.
CONCLUSION
The farmer’s anger over land acquisition can be traced back to 1760 where Oliver Goldsmith a famous poet witnessed the demolition of an ancient village and destruction of its farms to clear land to become a wealthy mans garden. His poem “The Deserted Village” published in 1770, expresses a fear that the destruction of villages and conversion of land from productive agriculture to ornamental landscape would ruin peasantry.
The first-ever attempt to have a Land Acquisition Act by a government in India was in 1824 in Bengal, when it was enforced for ‘public purpose’ – laying railway tracks and building Secretariat and Defence establishments.