Land Acquisitions in India - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: LAND ACQUISITIONS IN INDIA Land acquisitions in India Throughout the emergence of mankind, people have tried efficiently to bring a balance between the rights of an individual and the power, often a coercive power, of the State. The issue of Land acquisition has become the most troublesome problem for the policy makers in India. The issues like the Singur and Nandigram, that involved the Tata Motors, and the incident of Kalinganagar, Jaitapur, and Patta Parsaul have become a prominent scenario in the context of land acquisition in India. The Left Front, which built a noteworthy political hegemony in West Bengal largely on the basis of Operation Barga and land reforms, has been brought to its knees after a substandard attempt at wresting a thousand acres for a car factory, illustrating how land issues have a seismic potential in our political landscape. This was one of the potential reasons behind the political turmoil occurred in west Bengal. People of west Bengal took the issue of land acquisitions in the rural areas of Singur and Nandigram as a prime case of malfunction in the context of malfunction. The economic boom caused during the post-liberalization period continues to create a voracious appetite for space to meet the demands of industrialization, infrastructure building, urban expansion, and resource extraction. Finding a way to balance the needs of “economic growth, equitable distribution and human rights, rescuing these complex and sometimes conflicting objectives from the demagoguery of single issue advocates…and political opportunists, is perhaps the greatest challenge facing our democracy” (Ghatak and Ghosh, 2011, p.2). The paper addresses the hindrances associated with land acquisitions in India, the role of “special economic zones”, and the policy implications. SEZ, a prime reason for land acquisition in India Special economic zone, also abbreviated as SEZ is one of the prime reasons behind land acquisition in India. SEZ is an exclusively demarcated land area. The ownership and the operating power of this piece of land are exercised by a private company (Dohrmann, 2008, p-63). This entity is treated as a foreign territory for the sole reasons of trade, duties, and tariffs. Special economic zones will be facilitated with exemptions from government taxes and duties such as service tax, sales tax and others by the government of India. Although The Indian parliament passed the SEZ act in June 2005, the law came into effect in February 2006. The states like that of Gujarat had approved regional SEZ legislation in the year of 2004. The Commerce and the cabinet minister for industrial growth, Shri Kamal Nath acknowledged that exports will increase five times and the GDP of the nation will rise 2%. It was also emphasized that SEZ will generate substantial employment across India. The Indian government emphasizes that SEZ will possibly grab the attention of global manufacturing sector. It will enhance the transfer of latest technology and will also generate incentives for infrastructure. Central government of India has given the approval of a total of 439 SEZ across Indian states. Of the total198 of these SEZs have essentially been notified already (Vaidya, Dhar, 2005, p-1) Ultimately 500 SEZs are deemed to be formulated. The total volume of land to be taken across India for the purpose of SEZ is 150,000 hectares. This land mainly agricultural and essentially multi cropped is potentially competent of producing almost 1 million tons of food grains. If SEZs are seen to be triumphant in the future and more refined land is acquired, they will imperil the food security of the person. The employment generated in the organized sector is yet less than 3 crore. Employment is less than 0.15 crore even in the information technology and ITES sector. Due to the growing automation, modern era of manufacturing grows joylessly around the world. With the booming automobile sector, the organized sector is also in a need of labor supply (SACW, n.d.). A case study of land acquisition Tata motors and the Singur and Nandigram case The government of West Bengal initiated significant land reform programs with the aim to reduce the high level of poverty and to generate employment in the state of west Bengal. The efforts made by the government initially produced favorable results from the point of view of the poor, but in the present era and the recent years, their development towards reducing poverty has shown a significant decline. The present process of land acquisitions started in west Bengal as soon as the left front government came in to power in the May of 2006. In fact the main slogan in the pre election campaign of the left front was introducing new industrialization processes in the state. This process received stiff resistance from the farmers whose lands were acquired or subjected to be acquired (Mohanty, 2007, p-1). The then industry minister, Mr. Nirupam Sen, acknowledged that the west Bengal state government was in a process of acquiring 32000 acres of land, in the districts surrounding Kolkata. It was emphasized a primary step to pave way for industries in west Bengal. He also stated that the government will acquire land as per the requirements of the industrialists, as the industries promised to create a special economic zone or SEZ in west Bengal. The number of landless in the state has increased by 2.5 million in the last five years, amounting to a total of 7.4 million. He also reported that agricultural land was abridged by 1, 20,000 acres in the same year, with an average of 24,000 acres a year (Banerjee, 2006). The protest against the land acquisition in Singur The farmers in Singur organized within themselves a committee in order to generate the protests against acquisition of land. The committee was named as “save agricultural committee”. Several protests were generated by the natives of the places were land acquisitions took place. A significant presence and efficient participation of peasant women was noteworthy. In many incidents, whenever the government officials tried to enter the villages to serve the notifications to the farmers for acquiring land, the women produced spontaneous resistance with brooms and sticks, also alerting others by blowing conch shells (Banerjee, 2006). Effect of the land acquisition in Singur As the project that was forecasted could not be implemented efficiently, and the Tata motor eventually moved away from Bengal to Gujarat for their “Nano” project, the land that was used to set up the primary industries became a waste. The lands that were incorporated for setting up the industries were rich and fertile, as the industrial construction began; it destroyed the fertility of the land. Due to this, the land became of no use even after Tata motors withdrew the project. This created mass unemployment. A section of the people went to the nearby towns, to get employed in factories, shops, and petty businesses. Some of the youths migrated to other developed cities in search of employment, which mainly included that of goldsmith and construction workers. Apart from the production of rice, the main crops in the area were jute and vegetables. So the minor farmers and landless can live off the small land they have or they can take on lease. But they got very little or no compensation in the process of land acquisition, and hence would be the worst sufferers in the process (Banerjee, 2006). Effect of land acquisition Estimation of the effect of land acquisitions reflects that close to around 114,000 farming households, and additional 82,000 farm worker families who are dependent upon these farms for their livelihoods, will be potentially threatened of their livelihood and source of daily meal earning. This implies that almost 10 lakh people who primarily depend on agricultural production for their survival will face the situation of a possible extinction. Due to this it is evident in the present era that cases of reported suicides of farmers are prominently evolving around the media, every other day. Due to the phenomenon of land acquisitions the helpless farmers are left with no other option than to potentially end their life and also of their families to end the prolong misery of poverty. Experts in the field presume that the total loss in the revenue of farming and the farmers is approximately Rs. 212 crore a year. It further emphasizes that, this does not essentially comprise losses in other incomes (for instance of artisans) due to the demise of local rural economies. The government of India promises the actions of proper displacement of the farmers whose lands are being acquired, and the facility of relief and rehabilitation. Though, the past records does not provide any proofs in this context, possibly almost 40 million people lost their land since 1950 on account of displacement due to large industrial development projects (SACW, n.d.). Inspite of the initial mass approval of projects regarding the special economic zone, the growth of SEZ has encountered major hurdles. The hurdles have evolved due to the fact that the implementation of SEZ implies forceful acquisition of land (Rawat, et. al, 2010, p-6) More than 75% of them are still awaiting the rehabilitation process. The 80% of the agricultural population is the primary owner of only about 17% of the total agriculture land, leading to the scenario of near landless farmers. The scenario is even more prominent as more than one family depends on a piece of land that is actually owned by someone else, as most of the farmers are landless. However, compensation is being attributed only for those who hold titles to land. No significant compensation has been planned for those who don’t. The existence of SEZs will essentially attract modern industry and services in order to succeed, although it is presumed that they are unlikely to generate too many jobs. It is also emphasized that the few jobs that will be generated only for the people who are highly skilled, which is essentially not available in the countryside from where working people are displaced to make room for SEZs. The significant statement is that, “government does not provide information about the jobs lost; they provide only the jobs created” (SACW, n.d., p.5). Solutions to reduce the hazards in land acquisitions Although acquisitions of land are essentially used for the growth of a country, it is important that the hazards in the process are minimized. The process of updating the land records through the settlement of claims of ownership should be one of the prime and early perspectives of a project. A competent authority should be mobilized so that they can update the records of villages that are coming under the project, as soon as the area for the project is being identified. This should be done before the initiation of land acquisition process or at the project formulation stage. The computerize data of the rights should be available in public domain. The sensitization of public and revenue officers is essentially necessary, which includes that of the lower staff, on their role and responsibilities: why and when land is required, to update records, the sense of urgency and the need to avoid delay. Implementation of concentrated preparation programs through the process of sensitization. Enhancing the facility of land acquisition and resettlement institutional capacity is needed at the design stage, which implies it is to be formulated well before the start of civil works. The capacity of revenue offices needs to be assessed; the areas where substantial rise in volume of work is expected, needs to be recognized and proportionate staff and budget resources need to be allocated. Implementation of nodal officers is necessary so that they can organize the task within the agencies, with distributed decision making to add to the work speed (IITK, 2009). Implementation of effective systems for better delivery results should essentially be coordinated by design consultants prior to detailed designing. This essentially will allow land acquisition to commence within the project preparation stage. Also, surveys of assets that were proposed to be acquired need to be completed before Land acquisition schedules are prepared and included in the Detailed Project Reports (DPR). Amplified outsourcing of survey work and valuation of assets and buildings is necessary; of course, constitutional functions must linger with the government. There is a necessity to build the credibility and capacity of private sector in this respect (IITK, 2009). Conclusion Land acquisition in Indian has significantly increased through the times, and it has become a common phenomenon in the present day. Different projects are implemented by the state governments in order to enhance and generate the revenue in the particular states. Acquisitions of land are essentially done to formulate the special economic zones or SEZ. An existence of a special economic zone in a state facilitates the concerned states in many ways, although the hazards cause due to the acquisition of the land is also noteworthy. Although land acquisition can be beneficiary for an industry or a group, but it also results in the creation of dismal situation of poverty for many poor farmers. It is essential that the government of a state take into consideration both the positive and negative aspects of land acquisitions before coming to a conclusion of land acquisitions. References Banerjee, P (2006), Land Acquisition and Peasant Resistance at Singur, retrieved on 17th April, 2012, from: http://sanhati.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/acquisitionSingur.pdf IITK, (2009), INDIA INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT 2009 Land—A Critical Resource for Infrastructure, IITK, India, oxford university press, retrieved on 17th April, 2012, from: http://www.iitk.ac.in/3inetwork/html/reports/IIR2009/IIR_2009_Final_July%2009.pdf (63, 64) SACW, (n.d), SEZs, and land acquisition-factsheet for an unconstitutional economic policy, SACW, retrieved on 17th April, 2012, from: http://www.sacw.net/Nation/sezland_eng.pdf Ghatak, M. & P. Ghosh, (2011), THE LAND ACQUISITION BILL: a CRITIQUE AND a PROPOSAL, retrieved on 17th April, 2012, from: http://www.cdedse.org/pdf/work204.pdf Vaidya, C & Dhar, V,K, (2005), Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Their Implication on Urban Management and Regional Planning in India, retrieved on 17th April, 2012, from: http://www.niua.org/Publications/discussion_paper/sez.pdf Dohrmann, J,A, (2008), Special Economic Zones in India – An Introduction, retrieved on 17th April, 2012, from: http://www.asienkunde.de/articles/a106_asien_aktuell_dohrmann.pdf Mohanty, M, (2007), Singur and the Political Economy of Structural Change, retrieved on 17th April, 2012, from: http://www.macroscan.org/pol/feb07/pdf/Singur.pdf Rawat, B, Bhusan, B, & Surepally, (2010), The Impact of Special Economic Zones in India: A Caste Study of Polepally SEZ, on 17th April, 2012, from: http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDIQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.future-agricultures.org%2Fcomponent%2Fdocman%2Fdoc_download%2F1092-the-impact-of-special-economic-zones-in-india-a-caste-study-of-polepally-sez-&ei=QVeWT8DfFYKIrAeJ89mADg&usg=AFQjCNGBvcGDyoDRl7E4avU21tmaKOrQsg&sig2=nNlEPNOUH-hqnqHSBQUs4A Read More