NAPM India:Land Reforms is Need of the Hour
A Paradigm Shift in Development Planning and Land Reforms is Need of the Hour Not Further Acquisition and Cash Compensation
New Delhi August 07: Amidst all the controversies
and conflicts related to Lokpal and Jan Lokpal politics, a very major
enactment (in Bill form) is to be tabled before the Cabinet this week
for approval and there after tabled in the Monsoon session of the
parliament. While this has been in the offing for last many years,
people’s movements across the country from farmers to fishworkers,
landless workers to Dalits, adivasis as well as urban poor, are closely
watching and reacting or responding to every move on the issue: Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation. The
much awaited new “Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation
Bill” has now been renamed “Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement,
Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill, 2012
with a claim to better reflect Government’s Commitment towards securing
a legal guarantee for the rights of project affected, and ensuring
greater transparency in the land acquisition process. It is
also claimed that the Bill will ensure, in concert with local
institutions of self -government and Gram Sabhas established under the
Constitution, a humane, participative, informed, consultative and
transparent process for land acquisition.
The Bill has no doubt sought comments and suggestions through the website but limited only till 30 days and no regional or state consultations were held by Ministry for Rural Development
as was strongly suggested by NAPM, NFFPFW and many other organisations
across the country. This is a kind of disrespect shown to a large number
of organisations and millions of people engaged not only in conflict
over the issues of land, water, forest minerals or aquatic wealth but
also proposing a new, truly democratic, just and sustainable
‘Development Planning Act’ as an alternative since years.
Now that the all party Parliamentary Standing Committee’s report
(on Rural Development) on the Bill is out and the Ministry of Rural
Development has also made its views / reactions clear and open, we,
the people’s movements, have taken serious cognizance of the fact that
the strong position taken by the Standing Committee on certain critical
issues are either diluted or rejected by the Ministry of Rural
Development, which is shocking. The Ministry that is supposed
to protect the rights and powers of the rural communities has not
accepted some of the standing committee recommendations, towards that
end, which are presented with our comments, herewith:
Food Security and Agricultural Land Acquisition
1. No forcible acquisition of agricultural land, for non-agricultural purpose including single crop and multi crop land.
· Ministry says only multiple crop land can be excluded.
How can the in-between farms that may be unirrigated, rain fed,
single crop be left out, we ask. India has 75% of the agricultural land
as rain fed and most of it single cropped. Such land is mostly held by
Dalits, Adivasis and marginal farms. Protecting them and all farm land
for food security, which comes not from PDS but self sufficient
agriculture, is a must!
Acquisition for Private and PPP Projects
2. No forcible acquisition for private projects, or for PPP, which can not to be categorized as public purpose projects.
· Ministry has rejected this and justified this with a
provision that consent of 80% of project affected People will be sought
before acquisition for any private projects
In this era of neo-liberal economic reforms, private projects
with corporate investment and interests are taking a much larger toll of
land and other rich natural resources as also uprooting by killing
communities which are generations old. This must come to an end and the
same can happen only with stopping the State playing a role of
facilitator and land dealer. At the cost of the livelihood of the nature
based sections and working class section of society, the state can’t
transfer the most valuable livelihood resources such as land, water to
the profiteering bodies in the garb of ‘public interest‘ and ‘public purpose‘.
Bringing 16 Central Acts Under Purview of this Bill
3. The standing committee has recommended that all 16 central
acts should be brought under the purview of the new act, to make all
equal before law (Article 14 of the Constitution).
· Ministry of Rural Development wants to exclude 13 out of
16 Acts including Industrial Development Act, Land Acquisition (Mines)
Act, National Highways Act and others from the purview of the new act.
This means that 90% of the land acquired as on today will continue with
injustice and force used, with no change at all.
The standing committee recommendations must be upheld to end brutal unjust acquisition for all projects.
Role and Consent of Gram and Basti Sabha
4. The Committee asks that all studies – SIA, EIA, expert
committee appraisal be done in consultation with the gram sabhas and the
corresponding reports be made available to the gram sabhas.
· Ministry emphasises that 80% consent of PAFs provision is there in case of linear projects where “consultation”.
Consent and direct involvement of majority of the Gram Sabhas
must be there in each and every project, including public projects for
public purpose. 80% consent of the project affected population for the
private projects alone is not sufficient. Why should the linear projects be left out?
If it’s consent of 80% affected, there are to be a number of
manipulations that people will have to face. Experiences of 70% consent
in Slum Rehabilitation Scheme in Mumbai are quite telling.
Return of Unutilised Land to farmers and Land Bank
5. The Committee recommended that the land, if not used till 5
years, should be returned after 5 years from the date of possession to
the land owners.
· Ministry accepts the reduced five years time period but
opposes its return to the landowner and suggests it to go to State Land
Bank.
The ownership over the land is of those who till it and if not
used and unutilized then it must be returned to the owners or
distributed amongst the project affected people. We oppose any such
feature which will promote land bank, since it has promoted large scale
acquisition in the past and later illegally transferred the same land to
corporations for real estate and other purposes.
Retrospective Application of the Law
6. On the question of retrospective application of the R&R
provisions Committee has suggested to Ministry to re-examine the issue
and incorporate necessary provisions
· Ministry has not accepted it and refused to do so.
It needs to be noted that nearly 100 million people have been
displaced since independence and with a dismal 17-20 percent rate of
resettlement and rehabilitation we had suggested that not only the
retrospective application of the provisions of the new act but a National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Commission be established to deal with the claims of the projected affected people from various projects.
Resettlement and Rehabilitation Benefits
In terms of the resettlement and rehabilitation benefits Committee
apart from suggesting some cosmetic changes have accepted the provisions
of the Bill, we think this is unfortunate since provisions don’t stand
up to livelihood based R&R, it merely promotes the principle of cash
compensation. It will be a retrogressive step since it negates
the land and employment based R&R as mandated in the Narmada Water
Dispute Tribunal Award, and various other projects. The
proposed provisions of compensating employment with money and high rates
for land acquired will only lead to speculative land market and will
destroy the fragile economy of the rural hinterland which will lead to
further urban migration.
Urban Eviction
The Bill and the comments by both, Standing Committee as
well as MoRD almost totally excludes and have unaddressed the situation
in the urban areas, where there is no land acquisition, but eviction,
brutal and unjust, for any and every elitist real estate development to
infrastructure without guaranteeing right to shelter, right to life and
livelihood. The only provision is to compensate with 20% of
developed land for land owning families in urbanisation projects, which
is not with regard to the cases where land belongs to the government or
private entities but people are evicted. We demand a separate section or a separate act
for the millions of the urban persons and urban land from getting
misappropriated. The Bill with the presently proposed content need to be
called only “Rural Bill”.
The rapacious use of Land Acquisition Act 1894 by the government to
secure land for ‘development’ projects has caused over 100 million
people to be displaced from their land, livelihoods and shelters. The
country is dotted with communities resisting State sponsored land grab
which resonate the demand for a just law to ensure that there is no
forced acquisition of land and resources, including minerals and ground
water. The government must respond to the voices from movements across
places such as Narmada, Koel Karo, Singur, Nandigram, Sonbhadra,
Chindwara, Bhavnagarm, Kalinga Nagar, Kashipur, Raigarh, Srikakulam and
mining areas in central India with genuine efforts to address the
longstanding crisis concerning land Acquisition and resettlement &
rehabilitation.
If the UPA government serious about addressing the
conflicts over the land and other natural resources then it must listen
to the voices of those struggling or else it will only aggravate these
conflicts all across the country. The need of growth,
infrastructure and urbanisation can’t be fulfilled on the graveyard of
millions. A pro-people Development Planning Bill with complete
participation of the Gram Sabha will go a long way in stopping the
massive corporate corruption and lead to decentralization of power having an overall impact on the politics of the country.
We the people’s movements and various alliances such as National
Alliance of People’s Movements, National Forum of Forest people and
Forest Workers, Kisan Sangharsh Samiti and others will hold a public discussion (13 August 2012, Constitution Club, New Delhi)
on the forthcoming Bill with activists, people from movements which are
fighting for land rights and representatives from national political
parties. Thousands of people displaced by ’developmental’ projects in
Narmada, Bhakra, Polavaram, Mundra, Pune (Lavasa), Nandigram, slum
displaced people from Mumbai and fish-workers displaced by coastal and
tourist projects will camp in Delhi to warn the government and
protest against passing any such act in this session of the parliament
on 21-23 August 2012.
Medha Patkar, Roma, Dr. Sunilam, Rupesh Kumar
Contact : Madhuresh 9818905316 | Vijayan M J 9868165471 napmindia@gmail.com
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