Column Small car, big problem

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: Will the Nano roll out of Bengal? Or will it get going from some other part of India? These are questions that will be answered pretty soon. But irrespective of the Nano, another question will remain unanswered. Has land acquisition become the biggest roadblock for India’s industries?

Singur has brought land acquisition back in the spotlight. What’s the main issue? There is opposition to industry coming up on fertile farming land. Such industrialisation is allegedly counterproductive as it affects crop output and displaces farmers from their livelihoods. This ‘anti-people’ industrialisation is taking place in tacit collusion between industrialists and governments. The latter are helping the former to acquire land.

Some thoughts need to be pondered before one agrees or disagrees with the above.

First, industries, at least like the one at Singur, are tangible entities. They have sizes, structures and shapes and require space for construction and function. They cannot come up in vacuum. They need land under their feet to grow. New industries require new lands. The stock of industrial assets can’t increase unless they are created afresh. So industrialisation can’t occur without land.

Second, industries have nothing to do with the fertility and use of land. Nanos will roll out of factories irrespective of whether they stand on tracts that grew cotton or mushrooms. Industries only require vacant land.

Third, which vacant land will industries come up on? Investors choose locations based on features like connectivity and contiguity. If adequate information is not available, they approach authorities. They might also do so once they identify a land and examine the feasibility of building an industry on it.

Four, identification of land doesn’t mean its possession. Vacant plots also belong to somebody. It doesn’t matter if they are barren and uncultivated. It is up to the owners to decide whether they wish to sell their land. If they wish to transact their asset at a mutually agreed price, then land becomes available for industry. Otherwise, no.

If industrial land had been transacted in an open market in a fair manner, then Singur and Nandigram would have remained obscure. Their fame has much to do with a particular legislation framed in the colonial era. That is the Land Acquisition Act of 1894.