Events & Issues

New Delhi, 16 September 2008

Acquisition of Land

Whose Interest Does it Serve?

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

The demand for land has been increasing with industrial projects and urbanization growing at a very fast pace. Many States have witnessed violent clashes over land acquisition and the recent-most case being that of Singur, in West Bengal. There have been protests in Mumbai and Pune as land was acquired at prices much below market rate for a 1,000 hectare multi-product special economic zone (SEZ) to be set up by Videocon.

Farmers’ struggles against SEZs have come to the fore also in Raigad, Rajuranagar, Karla and Aurangabad in Maharashtra and many other States. In fact, from Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa to the Western Ghats, from Punjab to Karnataka and West Bengal, huge industrial projects are fighting local resentment, bureaucratic bungling and political brinkmanship.

The States are desperate to carry forward the industrialization process and are vying with each other to make available the best possible land at cheap rates to corporate houses to attract them. Even fertile land is being acquired for the purpose and worse the compensation is far from satisfactory, in fact much below market rates. Moreover, in some cases the poor farmers and their families are deprived of not only their livelihood but are thrown out of their shelter, where they resided for decades.    

The SEZ syndrome has aggravated the problem further as corporate houses prefer setting up units in such zones where no law of the land applies – no labour law, no environmental law and no panchyati raj law. It may be mentioned that SEZs were created in 2006 through the SEZ Act of 2005 which allowed the government to appropriate farmers’ land and hand it over to corporations.  

The justification given for land acquisition by most States is to gear up industrial growth as agriculture has become unproductive and cannot look after the economic needs of such large population dependent on it. But though political leaders talk of acquiring of non-productive and barren land for industrial use, in practice, however, they acquire the land that the corporate house had identified which is obviously in a convenient location. 

The theory of increasing revenue from industrialization and achieving high growth of the GDP is the ultimate objective before the Government, even though it may have to be achieved by displacing and killing people. Though there is much talk of strengthening agriculture and eradicating poverty at various seminars and conferences, these seem only to misguide the people and make headlines in newspapers. The corporate lobby, which is hand-in-glove with the political leaders, is extremely strong and would go to any extent of acquiring land, even if it may be multi-crop.

A section of so-called western educated experts, who have little idea about rural India or the land-man ratio or the average income of rural households, justify the takeover of such land on grounds that it would facilitate faster industrialization and strengthen the State’s economy. Wanting to be magnanimous enough, they would talk of rehabilitation but have no practical idea of how difficult it is for a family, ousted from its roots, to earn its livelihood in a new place. In the global quest for globalization, for faster industrialization and for increase in profits, some people at the lowest rung of the ladder may have to sacrifice their lives, either due to starvation or hunger or because of displacement.           

The huge land requirement for SEZs all over the country obviously involves displacement of thousands of farmers, and this has become a subject of intense debate among politicians, businessmen and social activists. This has to be viewed in the present context of the need for using agricultural land for enhanced food production keeping in view the rapid growth of population and the somewhat stagnant growth of cereal production. Historian Sumit Sarkar aptly observed that SEZs could become “the biggest land grab movement in the history of modern India”. Both the Congress and the Left are perturbed with such a definition, since displacement of farmers could be politically costly, specially for the former, on the eve of ensuing elections.

The recent spurt in food prices in the Third World countries is a pointer to the emerging crisis. In India imports have been increasing and the chairman of the National Commission on Farmers, Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, in his report, has called to conserve farmland only for agriculture and not for diverting it for non-agricultural activities, such as setting up of SEZs. He has also rightly urged the formation of an expert committee at the State level to identify waste and non-fallow land, which can be used for industrial purposes. Regrettably, nothing has been done so far.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry’s report last year (August 2007) suggested that the Government should explicitly ban the acquisition of double-crop land for building zones in the rules to the SEZ Act. Even single-crop rain-fed land should account for 20 per cent of the area covered by a multi-product zone, the panel, headed by Murli Manohar Joshi observed. It significantly also recommended that the ceiling on cultivable land be reduced to 2000 hectares and there should be a freeze on notification of new duty-free enclaves till the policy is reviewed. This apart, it sought that 50 per cent of the area be used for as processing zone.  

One may mention here that, according to the Central Statistical Organization (2002), India has 18 million hectares (44.5 million acres) of cultivable wasteland and 25 million hectares (61.7 million acres) of fallow land. Taken together, it accounts for 43 million hectares (106.2 million acres) of both cultivable waste and fallow land. Obviously, there is enough such land available for industrialization. Instead of setting up SEZs on multi-cropped land, it would be judicious to use waste and fallow land.

But probably gauging the defiant mood being manifest in Bengal, Haryana, Maharashtra and Orissa, the Government has taken a few steps to help its own case. The Centre has announced that all land has to be acquired with the consent of owners and the ceiling for all SEZs would be 5,000 hectares (12,500 acres). But it needs to be further reduced to 2,000 hectares, as recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry. Moreover, the minimum processing area for SEZs has been raised to 50 per cent (from the earlier 35 per cent). However, what is most significant is the decision that “no State can compulsorily acquire land (for an SEZ) from farmers through the Land Acquisition Act”. However, we see acquisition of land continues unabated. 

Worse, no serious thought has been given to the actual plan of rehabilitation of farmers and of ensuring sustainable livelihood for the displaced families. Though Dr Swaminathan and various development experts and planners expressed apprehensions, little has been done. It is now imperative that recommendations on land acquisition should clearly include: fallow or wetland acquisition instead of farmlands for takeover purposes; a ban on multi-crop land takeover; single crop land preferably should also not be taken unless really needed; no State government would ever acquire any land for private industry/SEZ; and a final rehabilitation and resettlement Act following the policy would have to be implemented at the earliest before making any move to acquire land in rural (or even urban) areas for industrialization/urbanization purposes.

Clearly, the trouble over land acquisition is becoming more acute as days pass by.  The political parties and the industry need to sit together and work out a decent formula to ensure that everyone turns out to be a beneficiary—the farmer, the industrialist and the State. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)