As time ticks and I count the number of hours left for me to wake up in time to reach for my Summer Training class , i shudder thinking about the early morning ordeal , I’ve taken a long time to start and finish this post , i hope its been worth all the time.
There are ample of things happening in our country today , scam after scam comes up and then there is the yearly (and now bi-yearly) Petrol rise and if that is not all , you have all sorts of Baba’s taking over politics and giving ultimatums by fasting unto death (Do they ever die?!)...
I want to talk about something else today , something very fundamental … ‘Land’
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| Cracking up , eh? |
Land is essential and features almost everywhere , you have Land in “Roti(Food) , Kapda(Clothes) , Makaan(Shelter aka Land)” , and my friends from the Economics Degree will tell you that Land is one of the basic ‘ Factors of Production’ and just take a look around or maybe under ..Land is indeed everywhere..
Land is the basis of livelihoods for peasants and farmers all across the Third World especially India which is an Agrarian country and is also becoming the most valuable asset in world economy. In India, 65 per cent of people are dependent on land. At the same time we are a progressive global economy which is driven by speculative finance and limitless consumerism and hence we want the land for mining and industry, for towns and highways. Its basically Agrarian Society v/s The Progressive Economy.
Hence the trend has now become to commodify everything including Land , whether it is through SEZ(Special Economic Zones) or through direct investments.
The Government has at times acted as a facilitator of land (to Private investors/Coporates)and at times itself taken over land completely , obviously done in ‘ public and national interest ‘. The Government uses The Land Acquisition Act of 1984 , which is one of those archaic and passe laws from the British times. The Land Acquisition Act in a lay man’s version entails the Government buying out Land that maybe required for a particular ‘public interest’ project and then this land be transferred to a private investor/corporate and the owner of the land is compensated with ‘reasonable’ price.
Suppose you have a piece of land which happens to come in the way of an Expressway , then the Government will buy out your land , regardless of whether you want to sell it or not , regardless of whether you maybe living there , regardless of whether that piece of land gets your daily bread , which is predominantly the case.
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The problems are :
One , the government not only buys the land for the Expressway/Roads but also the land around it and that too at a meagre rate of compensation, and transfers this land to Builders/Corporates who build Golf Courses , High-End apartments.The question to be asked is ' Are we ready to sacrifice our fertile land in the cause of Urban Development ? ' , we are a country which is unable to feed more than 40 per cent of its children, so the choice between Golf Villas and Farmer land seems obvious but not to the Government apparently. Two , the law which is used is very old, and it needs to be changed and the government has promised that it will be amended in the next session of Parliament.
Ah well, we know where that road is headed!
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| These eyes could do with some assurance |
Having stated the problems , l shall move towards some of the solutions
One , the price of compensation and the manner of dispensing this compensation needs to be laid out clearly. And as far as possible the Market rate should be provided to the owners , and they should be properly rehabilitated.
Two , there needs to be special courts to take decisions in land disputes, so that cases are heard in a fast-track manner and issues resolved quickly.
Three, the Government needs to be as sensitive to the Farmers as it is to the Industrialists and the Corporates. As we have to agree that we are still an agrarian country.
Four, the law needs to be amended and it has to be a uniform amendment , because it being a state subject can be easily played with.
In the end , I’d like to remind how everytime land is acquired , there are protests and riots , whether it is Bhata Parsaul in U.P. or POSCO Steel Project in Orissa. It is hurting the democratic fabric of the nation. The Panchayats need to be given the charge in these situations as we are still a democracy or so I hope. And Why can’t the Government just talk and peacefully negotiate.
Land is Terra Madre, Mother Earth, Bhoomi, Dharti Ma . As one of the farmers said at a heated TV discussion “Land is our identity , at least allow us to fix a price for it "
Is anyone listening?
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How much does your identity cost ? Are you willing to sell it ?
A really nice & important article on a extremely important issue. However, since I love to debate out things, lemme just move on the basic points of clash. Firstly, where you mentioned about India being an Agrarian Economy - the point is, yes we are an agrain economy but in order to truly see development we need to move to the other sectors from agriculture. Secondly, You came up with that we are a country which is unable to feed 40% of its children - now this like being a little too emotional. We know India is at least a self-sufficient economy & food security is one of our major achievements (the problem in that zone is distribution & not production). Thirdly, we speak about building Formula One Circuits or highways & other stuff what needs to be realized is these things are really essential for the development aswell & in net effect they help farmers more than anyone else. Development in any zone brings amount a major hike in the land prices & farmers eventually tend to benefit the maximum; to take an example, just look at the land around our college - with the college coming into existence, the prices of land have shot up as hot cakes. As a matter of fact, we've all heard farmers selling their land & buying Land Rovers which probably you & me, might never be able to afford. Thirdly, if we look at the Singur case, if the Tata plant was to be positioned there, we all know the amount of development it would have brought to those people, the amount of jobs it would have created & so on.... In another example I would like to point out, Gurgaon about a decade ago was a completely village economy - today it is known as the Biggest IT hub of north India housing millions of IT executives & providing jobs for them. It was a rather tough choice for the government to choose between a few villagers to millions of IT engineers.
ReplyDeleteThe basic point I was trying to portray with the above examples was the fact that Land Acquisition is generally a win-win situation for all. Now the problems that arise are basically 4:
1) The Government: When you elect to power people like Mayawati as your Chief Minister, you'll end facing the brunt of it - no two ways about that. The situation in Bhata Parsaul has got more to do with bad governance & bad intentions rather than a failure of the Government machinery. This is a fact, if the intentions at the top are bad, GOD alone can save any law, bill, act etc. It just when your savior becomes your killer, Indira Gandhi could not survive this let alone a common man. This is called the "Gunda Raj".
2) The Compensation: A major error comes in the evaluation of the Land prices. The biggest fact being what do we call a credible evaluation? In most of the other walks of life, we accept any form of a government report to be the most credible, yet in case of land accusations & property, we all know that the government evaluation "Circle Rate" is far too low than the actual prices at which trading takes place. Also, when the rise in Land prices is as rapid as incase of the present scenario, there is little that even the government can do. Hence, there is no certain form of credible evaluation & hence the value of compensation will always be in the grey area.
3) When we look at development purposes, the former question that we have at Hand is, where does the money for these compensations come from? The fact is all of this money which is paid out to the farmers whose land is acquired is basically tax payer money. So, in the event of paying higher than reasonable prices, perhaps the entire state pays higher just to please a few set of farmers. The cost of each development project goes higher & eventually growth is retarded. It’s a simple question we must ask ourselves - Charity at what cost?
Comment 1 Continued :-
ReplyDelete4) Political Benefits: We all know what happened in Singur. The entire Tata plant got cancelled just because we had one Mrs. Mamta Banarjee, who incited the farmers as to what they were losing. As rational thinkers we all know what they lost out eventually but what we must not forget is that Mamta Banarjee is today the Chief Minister of Bengal.
Before I sum up, another thing to point out is that the Land Accusation Act is basically a Union Government Act which can be used by both the state as well the union government to acquire land. Any amendments to this shall be uniform.
Another point being, if land is the identity of the farmers, Petrol is the identity of the refining companies. Do we allow them to fix a price to it?? Just a thought.
Coming to an end of this comment which is probably as long as the article itself what I personally feel is that the need of only one & that is to have a credible system for the evaluation of Land prices. Maybe an Independent agency which is a Government - Private tie up of something & a fixed rate of compensation in regard to this evaluation; example in Delhi its 15% higher than the Net evaluation of Land.
At the end of it all I would like to say, Great thought & a great article Harman. It really was worth the time you spent. Keep it up man…
harman this is wonderful...i m glad u came up with this..this one of an important topic which is untouched by several debaters and media persons...land is basically mother of development in every sector... it seems u worked very hard on this. that is very appreciable...keep it up..
ReplyDelete@Abhinav:
ReplyDeleteA pretty short comment that , its as if you are saying Tit for Tat , i wrote a long column and you wrote an even longer comment!
Jokes apart , I appreciate the response , thats what makes me write more and apologies for the late reply.
Okay , so my problem with the Government dolling out land for F1 Race courses,etc is this: The Govt. took the land from Farmers/Peasants in order to build an expressway(Yamuna Expressway ,UP) and along with that , they bought out the adjoining area and sold it to the F1 racecourse people and to other builders of lavish flats,penthouses,golf courses ,etc.
Now , the Govt can buy land from anyone for Public Purpose (acc. to the Land Acquisition) i.e. in this case the Expressway..cool.. but the land bought for villas,race course at subsidized rates is wrong. There, the Government should ask those private investors to go to the Farmers and buy the land directly , so the deserving amount of that land shall be paid to the Farmer..The farmer should get the maximum profits of the land coz He is infact the owner of the land.. firstly you want to buy out his land even if he disagrees and then you don't even want to pay him well, Its preposterous.
Secondly , there have been cases when the Panchayats have decided against giving the land to the Government , but the Government has overlooked , Panchayats are part of the Democratic structure and such dismissal of their partly authority is horrendous , it may as well make us a Totalitarian State and not a Democracy.
The use of violence as seen recently , even when the Court Cases for certain land acquisition cases are pending in court , violates the constitutional rights ,overlooking due process.
Third, Building multiple private expressways and highways is not necessary infrastructure but preserving our ecological infrastructure for water and food security is ..
And as far as the question of identity is , Land gives a fixed income to Farmers , but paying them a meagerly amount (aka 'reasonable') and shunting them out of their land and not rehabilitating them is utterly dismissive of the basic rights of people.
In the end , I do agree that we need land for upgrading infrastructure and development and hence as you suggested an independent body needs to be formed which decides the rate of a particular piece of land, along with some sort of rehabilitation.
@Sumeet: Thanks! :)
ReplyDeleteSee on your first point there are a few things which are necessary evils. Like the example you gave, of the Noida - Yamuna Expressway & the F1 racing track, think of the other prospective. Due to expressway being built, Sugar & Sugarcane is easily available in the entire northern region due to the major sugarcane producing parts of U.P getting connectivity to Delhi. This means availability of sugarcane across north India at reasonable prices, lowering of seasoning losses & benefit for all. Also, due to the connectivity factors, Industry is developing right up till Agra & even further, generating loads of employment for rural India. Thirdly, one thing we all agree is that piece of land used for F1 racing will generate much higher incomes for the country due to FDI & Tourism than what agricultural practices would have developed at the same land section. Also, imagine a beautiful formula one circuit midst of farms & sugar-cane fields. Seams quite a nightmare, doesn't it? So, when we go in for some new project it does require supporting infrastructure which generally takes place at the cost of Farm land. Additionally, what you missed out were 2 points - 1) Land is never taken from the farmers at subsidized rates (only there is no criteria for determination of land value which I wrote in my previous comment) & 2) Whenever land is given to private players it is auctioned, hence the government gets the maximum funds which can be used for other development activities.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, you spoke about the panchayts rejecting the proposal. Look at this point at a macro-level. The government has to look after the welfare of the entire state or nation & not just the given area while the duty of the panchayat is to take decisions in the best interest of the given area. Now why would any panchayat support an F1 circuit, but there are a huge lot of benefits that it has alongside giving rise to a sport in which India is definitely weak in. Hence, there is a conflict of Interest whose decision generally remains ambiguous & its not a bleach of democracy because even in case of democracy when a consensus cannot be reached we look for majority best interest.
As regard to violence, as I wrote in my previous comment - its more of the Government you choose rather than what Laws you have. No law what so ever gives you the license to carry our ill-legal & un-lawful activities. That is just a case where people of the country have to realize the kind of government that they elect & to exercise their right to vote more judiciously.
Also, these since what I mentioned that the Land value is unknown & cannot be determined credibly hence such issues arise. In general we also have had cases where farmers have been rehabilitated with a piece of land at a different location as a part of the compensation. At times the compensations have been greater than the land value. Also, when we look at these development projects we also have to keep in mind is the eventual value in form of jobs etc.
All in all what I am trying to convey is that in these cases the laws are pretty much apt & are all set in good faith, it the governments which at times spoils the parties. These can only be set right if people understand the value of the Vote & use it judiciously. Every vote makes a difference.
I dunno but the clash factor I was talking about is making this post all the more interesting. Probably this is the best post & the most interesting one on this blog.
ReplyDelete