land acquisition/sez & displacement â 2011 - Indian Social Institute

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take measures to vacate stays on projects planned on the Narmada river for public to reap the full benefit.A bench comprising Justices J M Panchal, Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan disposed of cross-appealsfiled by the MP government and the Medha Patkar-led Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and rejected theNGO's demand for giving full and separate relief and rehabilitation benefits to all major sons of damoustees by treating them as separate family units. Wrting the 131-page judgment on behalf of the bench,Justice Chauhan said: "We have been given to understand that on the Narmada river in the state ofMadhya Pradesh, in all 29 major and minor projects are contemplated. Some of them have already beencompleted, but on account of stay order by the court or Authority some projects could not be completed.""It is unfortunate that in spite of the fact that a huge amount has been spent, yet no one is able to reap thefruits of investment. The state should take immediate steps to get the final verdict in such cases or stayvacated and start the project at the earliest," he said. Refusing to disturb the compensatory land allotmentpackage already granted by the state under the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, the bench setaside the Madhya Pradesh High Court orders by which the oustees who earlier received compensationfor their land became entitled to claim additional land. "The oustees who have already accepted cashcompensation plus special rehabilitation grant, cannot claim the land in lieu of land," the Bench said.However, in the event of any complaint, the oustees could approach the grievance redressal authority(GRA) or the high court, it said. For the state, senior advocate PS Patwalia and advocate CD Singh hadsubmitted that the HC could not have granted the demands made by NBA, which were contrary to theR&R scheme. (TOI, 12/05/2011)Medha moots Development Planning Act for “no or minimum displacement”Where, she says, gram sabhas and basti sabhas will decide on rural and urban development respectivelyEven as Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar on Thursday demanded repeal of the LandAcquisition Act, 1984, the All-India Kisan Sabha urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call a specialsession of Parliament to discuss the issue. Ms. Patkar, who was arrested at Parsaul village on Thursdayand later released, said that instead of an amended Act, there should be a comprehensive DevelopmentPlanning Act under which development should only be with the consent of gram sabhas in rural areas andbasti-sabhas in urban areas with “no or minimum displacement.” Following her visit two days ago toBhatta village, she said that because of prohibitory orders in the Bhatta-Parsaul villages, women andchildren were not getting relief. “They were not even able to file FIRs for their missing male familymembers. There should be dialogue with farmers to address issues,” she said. Meanwhile, the KisanSabha's national general secretary, Atul Kumar Anjaan, urged the Centre to direct State governments tostop all further acquisition of land and ensure that the conditions and directions of the Supreme Court onrehabilitation and resettlement of displaced people were implemented. Mr. Anjaan pointed out that thePrime Minister had assured in Parliament that the government would review the Land Acquisition Act,“but no positive step has been taken.” On the same issue, Rashtriya Lok Dal President Ajit Singh, whohas visited the stir-affected villages in Uttar Pradesh twice, met Union Rural Development MinisterVilasrao Deshmukh here and urged him to introduce a farmer-friendly Bill in the coming session ofParliament. The RLD raised the issue of ‘definition of public purpose' in the Land Acquisition Act. “What isthe purpose of acquiring land from the farmers? Are golf courses and commercial complex also a publicpurpose? This needs to addressed.” For private enterprise, the government should not acquire more than10-15 percent of the land for removing hurdles from the completion of the project, he added. Mr. Singhsaid the use of section 17 of the Act (Urgency Clause) should be restricted to matters of national securityand natural disasters. “Also, individual notices must be given at the start of the acquisition process to thefarmers to ensure their awareness and ability to express their reservations, if any, to the concernedauthorities at the preliminary stage. “Farmers should get compensation on potential and present marketvalue for the land acquired and the amended act should ensure that if the purpose for which land wasacquired was not fulfilled after five years, the farmers should have the first right of ownership over land,”he said. Mr. Singh also demanded the setting up of a new ‘Land Acquisition (Disputes Settlement)Authority' at the mandal level, which should be headed by a High Court Judge and have on boardmembers with a background in land acquisition and agriculture. (Hindu, 13/05/2011)NAC's Working Group drafts note on land acquisitionA Working Group (WG) set up by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) has drafted adetailed note on land acquisition and relief and rehabilitation which seeks not only to go beyond thepending government bills on the subject, but recommends that the two be merged into a single National
Development, Acquisition, Displacement and Rehabilitation Act. Interestingly, it rejects the Haryanamodel that Congress leaders only too often hold up as exemplary. Indeed, the note says that some Stategovernment officials with whom the WG held discussions had said that “since land was essential for rapidindustrialisation and urbanisation, the attempt should be to make the oustees partners in growth ratherthan discourage forced acquisition.” In this context, the WG points out that the Haryana policy“discourages only acquisition of residential areas, but not agricultural land,” and adds that since foodsecurity will be a growing concern in the coming decades, policies promoting economic developmentmust be balanced with those encouraging food security, especially by discouraging the acquisition ofarable agricultural land. So, even as land acquisition has taken political centre stage, with Congressgeneral secretary Rahul Gandhi challenging the Mayawati government on the issue, and Union HomeMinister P. Chidambaram only last week promising that a law will be enacted soon, the WG's note willcome up for discussion on May 25 at a meeting of the full NAC. NAC sources told The Hindu that therewas a sense of urgency in the council and it hopes to be able to send a draft law well ahead of themonsoon session of Parliament. The two bills that the WG proposes to merge are the Land Acquisition(Amendment) Bill, 2009 which proposes amendments to the Land Acquisition Act 1894, and theResettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2009 a statutory framework for Rehabilitation and Resettlement(R&R) of persons displaced and affected by any development project. According to the NAC WG draft,the new legislation should be tested on whether it discourages forced displacement, minimises adverseimpacts on people, habitats, environment and bio-diversity, comprehensively defines project affectedpersons/families, provides for a just compensation and rehabilitation package, ensures a humane,participatory and transparent process and provides for effective implementation. However, there isdisagreement among the members of the WG — Harsh Mander, Aruna Roy and NC Saxena — on onemajor issue, which will have to be considered by the full NAC. One view is that “it is appropriate forgovernment to acquire land for private companies” as otherwise, “private companies would exploitunorganised, small and particularly tribal cultivators and pay them a pittance, while depriving them ofbenefits of R&R.” Dr. Saxena therefore feels that “for non-tribal areas, public purpose should be definedto include ‘the provision of land for any other purpose useful to the general public, including land forcompanies, for which at least 70 per cent of the project-affected people have given their written consent.'But for tribal areas, the government should acquire even 100 per cent of the land.” The alternative view is“to explicitly exclude acquisition for a project which has ‘as its primary objective the benefit of a privateinterest'; requiring instead that the project be directly related to the functions of the government,” andbenefit the community as a body. According to this view, even the 1894 Act contained no such provision,and “restrained the eminent domain of the State to projects of public welfare. It would be inappropriate,”the note emphasises, “for democratic India to make this change. For-profit private companies must workwithin the market, and pay enough to land-holders for them to voluntarily sell their land. ” (Hindu,19/05/2011)No integration of land acquisition, rehabilitation Bills: DeshmukhEven as the National Advisory Council accepted the suggestion of some of its members for a compositelegislation on land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement, Union Minister of Rural DevelopmentVilasrao Deshmukh on Wednesday spiked their suggestion and stuck to his decision to frame twoseparate laws during the monsoon session of Parliament. Talking to journalists, Mr. Deshmukhunderscored the difficulties in integrating the two laws, stressing that linking them at the current juncturewould not be proper. The NAC meeting, chaired by Sonia Gandhi, accepted the suggestion for integratingthe two Bills and decided to forward the same to the Rural Development Ministry though Mr. Deshmukhhad shot down the proposal. Rehabilitation and resettlement issues were not just limited to landacquisition and displacement but also a gamut of situations at the national level. The rehabilitation andresettlement provisions were aimed at providing relief to people affected by calamities such asearthquake, floods, and cyclones and other hardships that might befall the population. Mr. Deshmukh,however, said clubbing rehabilitation and resettlement provisions with the land acquisition law could beconsidered in the future. Draft to be finalised Maintaining that the consultation process on the two Billsended with Wednesday's NAC meeting, Mr. Deshmukh said his Ministry would consider its proposals andfinalise the draft and send it to the Law Ministry next week. (Hindu, 26/05/2011)Rehabilitation of victims under PSUs uncertainAmid facing the heat of ruthless anti-encroachment drive and heavy downpour- which cripples the life
Page 5 and 6: order. Each kit contains a kitchen
Page 7 and 8: Jharkhand Opposition rejects rehabi
Page 9: the new location shall only be iden
Page 14 and 15: a plot of land within the schedule
Page 16 and 17: land acquisition was a major challe
Page 18 and 19: debate on the issue of land acquisi
Page 20: SEZ land use policy flayed (4)The A
Page 23 and 24: eceive any such complaints. Look at
Page 25 and 26: Singur case: West Bengal to begin a
Page 27 and 28: natural calamities should be brough
Page 29 and 30: Land issues hit road work (4)Thiruv
Page 31 and 32: The government's land acquisition p
Page 33 and 34: the award (compensation) has not be
Page 35 and 36: 2011 it has been mentioned under Cl
Page 37 and 38: Paradip, Sept. 26: A violent clash
Page 39 and 40: Govt cannot change purpose of acqui
Page 41 and 42: new clause bans change of purpose i
Page 43 and 44: Supreme Court would be taken only a
Page 45 and 46: ‘Land acquisition at market price
Page 47 and 48: India Economic Forum on Monday. Rep
Page 49 and 50: decades for massive acquisition of
Page 51 and 52: the apex court, Tamil Nadu alleged
Page 53 and 54: policy," he demanded. The fresh sti
Page 55: overall cost has already increased

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land acquisition/sez & displacement â 2011 - Indian Social Institute