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
===============================================
Ph: 022-24150529
6/6, Jangpura B, Mathura Road, New Delhi 110014
Phone : 011 26241167 / 24354737 Mobile : 09818905316
Web : www.napm-india.org
Facebook : www.facebook.com/NAPMindia
Twitter : @napmindia
No comments:
Post a Comment