Dec 29 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)
Make the Land Loser a Stakeholder
Projects must be sustainable for society at large
The Narendra Modi government is planning to change land acquisition laws, amended in 2013, through an Ordinance, preferably before January 1, 2015. At least 13 sectors will be exempt from the strictures governing land acquisition, including mining, railways, roads and even urban metro rail networks, ostensibly in the interest of promoting faster growth. Why not also include real estate developers, mall builders, land speculators and their myriad agents, subagents, brokers and dalals in the ambit of this Ordinance? The main problem with the original, colonial land acquisition rules of 1893 was that the state was supposed to be the ultimate owner of all land.Everybody , including those with pattas -or written land rights -amounted to nothing, if the state invoked its suzerainty over land.This is what led to Singur, Nandigram and Bhatta Parsaul, where farmers resisted the state's occupation of `their' land and the toppling of the regimes of the Left in Bengal and Mayawati in Uttar Prade sh. Industry cribs that it is impossible to get the sanction of 80% of landown ers to dispossess them, while govern ment projects like road building are stuck for a 70% clearance from the owners of land under the 2013 law. Un der the colonial law, once the state decided to acquire land, it would give a one-time compensation to the victim, who would henceforth vacate their farm, vegetables, betel vines, poultry and fish ponds for the public weal -whatever it was supposed to be.
This model can't work in the 21st century . Anybody who has to give up land or livelihood has to be compensated for its growing valuation over time. This can be done through leasing, where the owner lends her land to the government for a steadily-increasing rent, or through an annuity-based system as practised in Haryana and Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The days of forcible acquisition through diktats from the state are long gone: people need a stake, ever-growing, in the land they give up. This Ordinance is misconceived. Incorporate stakeholdership for the land loser instead.
This model can't work in the 21st century . Anybody who has to give up land or livelihood has to be compensated for its growing valuation over time. This can be done through leasing, where the owner lends her land to the government for a steadily-increasing rent, or through an annuity-based system as practised in Haryana and Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The days of forcible acquisition through diktats from the state are long gone: people need a stake, ever-growing, in the land they give up. This Ordinance is misconceived. Incorporate stakeholdership for the land loser instead.
