As far as the human eye can see, one can only stare at the vast expanse of green paddy fields merging into the faint outline of the villages at the horizon. This road leads to Dhaulana and other surrounding villages beyond Dasna in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. ?That is the NTPC Dadri power plant,? says a farmer, pointing at the distant smoke-bellowing multi-chimney structure. One can see relief on the faces of farmers, as they have managed to protect their land, at least for now, from what they claim was a draconian and forceful acquisition process, which would have resulted in a similar structure coming up on their farmlands stretching beyond 2,500 acres, Reliance Power’s 8,000-mw Dadri Project. The project hasn?t moved beyond a site office and an incomplete boundary wall.
For the Rajasthani migrants who inhabit villages of Baharmandpur, Jadonpur, Nand Lal Pur, Bajhera Khurd, Kakarana, Dhaulana and Dehra, this land acquisition dispute, on since 2004, is folk legend. With the Allahabad High Court quashing use of emergency powers for acquisition by the then UP administration under Mulayam Singh Yadav, and the case now pending before the apex court, farmers here talk with fervour about what they believe was, and still is, a long-drawn struggle.
?People were forced to sign the agreements, many were harassed, picked up by the police and tortured. Even women and children were not spared. Farmers as old as 80-85 years have 15-20 false cases against them,? says Yudhishtir Singh, a leader of the Maharana Sangram Singh Kisan Kalyan Samiti, a farmers? organisation formed during the agitation. Be it Abdul Rashid from Dehra, Kamal Singh from Jadonpur or Vir Pal Singh from Bajhera Khurd, all can go on and on claiming how they allegedly faced the wrath of the state administration, how widespread corruption and use of force marred the process, how they were forced to surrender their fertile land, and how their lost hope was revived by former prime minister VP Singh when he backed their agitation.
The realities of this dispute seem complex, but the fact remains that wherever you look, there are industry-farmland disputes simmering with similar stories of alleged corruption and use of force. From Singur and Nandigram to Dadri and from Jhajjar to Kalinganagar, rural India is sandwiched between livelihood and so-called development through its transition.
?The fundamental point is that people don’t trust the state. And that is reflected through all these land acquisition and compensation issues. Also, we don’t have a situation where people, who suffer, lose their land and are displaced, are made partners in development. There will obviously be conflict,? says Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president, Centre for Policy Research. He adds that SEZ land acquisitions are particularly disastrous. ?It is such a constitutional and democratic travesty. On one hand you talk of democracy and rights and then you create cases with no scope for democratic rights to be exercised. It’s like giving deewani rights to the East India Company,? he says.
Yoginder K Alagh, former Union minister and present chairman of the Institute of Rural Management in Anand, feels incentives for farmers are just not enough. ?The farmer, for parting with his land which might be his only source of livelihood, must get an economic incentive. But that hardly ever happens. If the market price is Rs 5 lakh per acre, he would just end up getting Rs 50,000 per acre as compensation. Anyone would feel cheated and forced,? he says.
Another major cause of friction has been the acquisition of fertile land for industrial projects. Experts oppose such acquisitions strongly. ?That is one issue on which we have miserably failed. The state keeps itself engrossed in individual plots of land rather than doing what it should be doing, that is land use policy development. Why don?t they take the barren land and create infrastructure like roads and railway stations around it? The industry then will never hesitate in coming to such areas. Good and cultivable agriculture land should be spared,? says Alagh. Mehta concurs, ?The government is sitting on acres and acres of unused land and doing nothing about it while acquisition is going on for various projects. Why can’t they use this unused land or alternatively look at old industrial land and industrial townships and redevelop them for these projects?? he asks.
Like many other colonial era laws, the Indian farmers are still bearing the burden of the 116-year-old Land Acquisition Act, 1894. It is a common sentiment that the act needs a complete overhaul to be in sync with today?s realities and must address issues like proper compensation and rehabilitation. ?The Act is completely archaic and an impracticable piece of legislation. It needs sweeping changes. I feel sector-specific legislations with regard to land acquisition are necessary. Expectations and needs of different sectors are different. You just can’t have the same law for acquiring land for an SEZ and a metro rail project,? says lawyer Atul Sharma, managing partner, Link Legal.
And though at snail?s pace, work seems to be on. Two bills?National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy Bill and Land Acquisition Act Amendment Bill?were tabled in the last session of the 14th Lok Sabha, but are still stuck. ?Some features of these bills were: land for land wherever possible, rehabilitate and resettle first and then acquire, market-price compensation, jobs and education for the affected, not acquiring agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes, etc. If enacted, they would have led to a lot of relief for the farmers. We were seeking to turn the tables in favour of farmers and rural land owners,? says Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, former minister for rural development, who introduced the Bill. He adds that most cases of land acquisition have gone awry because of the role of the respective state governments.
Therefore, a major highlight of the amendment Bill is that it allows only 30% acquisition by the state and that, too, only after the company has acquired 70% by dealing directly with farmers. ?I feel the government should get out of this business of acquiring land. You need some rules to check one or two miscreants who might create trouble by holding back their land when all others have agreed. Only there should the government come in. But 30% is too big a number for such a scenario and forms a sizeable population. However, I would still call it is a step in the right direction,? says Alagh. The Bill reportedly has run into rough weather with Mamata Banerjee, who wants it to be more farmer-friendly.
The bills were preceded by a planning commission working group under former rural development secretary D Bandopadhyay, which submitted an exhaustive report on the issue. Also, the mines ministry is reportedly preparing the draft of a new mining Act that would provide for 26% profit sharing by miners with the local community. This is particularly significant as companies like ArcelorMittal and Posco have been facing protests against land acquisition.
Laws alone cannot solve the problem and a change in policies, mindsets and approach has to be adopted. ?You need to have a system where the farmers are further involved with the project and make it a source of livelihood as well. They can organise themselves into service groups that can provide services to the project, or they can be made stakeholders,? says Alagh. One example on these lines is that of Magarpatta City on the outskirts of Pune, where around 120 farmers pooled 430 acres of agricultural land and became stakeholders in their own development company and township. Punjab, too, presents an encouraging story, where the state ensures that compensation is much higher than the prevailing market value. As per a report in The Indian Express on August 12, each project in Punjab has a price fixation committee, which includes MLAs and MPs of the area concerned. Now consider this, while farmers agitating against Reliance Power’s Dadri project claim that their land, among the most fertile and well irrigated strips in India, was acquired at just Rs 7-7.5 lakh per acre, land for the international airport and Aerocity in Punjab is being acquired at a staggering Rs 1.5 crore per acre. Apart from this, other projects in Punjab offer at least five times of what was offered for the Dadri project, even for wastelands.
The proposed bills and new policies, though debatable, have opened a small window of possibility that the widespread industry-land disputes would subside and be resolved. How far they go in solving the near-crisis is an answer that would only emerge in time.