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

were placed in front of the BOA before the notification, it may not be appropriate for MADC to restrain thecompany from leasing the residential units to outsiders at this stage. (Times of India 1/8/11)Dharna planned against draft Land Acquisition Bill (4)The first major opposition to the draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill,2011 will be in the form of a three-day dharna here beginning on Wednesday by the project-affectedpeople. Various peoples' movements under the banner of SANGHARSH have decided to stage a dharnaat Jantar Mantar protesting the new draft and demanding that the government come up with acomprehensive National Development Planning Act, that would take care of the need for land, the landuse alterations that are required for genuine public purposes and land reforms for distributive justice.Social rights activist Medha Patkar said that the proposed bill failed to take into consideration theconcerns of millions of people affected by various projects and hence, was not a comprehensive draft.SANGHARSH said comparatively progressive laws such as the Panchayats Extension to ScheduledAreas (PESA) Act, 1996 and the Forest Rights Act, 2006 too had unfortunately come under threat of notbeing implemented, or, worse, being misused for distributing land titles to others. It wondered how somesuperficial amendments as proposed in the new legislation would change the basic structure of thiscolonial anti-people process and approach. People from 15 States will stage the dharna and demand thatthe new legislation focus on establishing land rights of the marginal farmers, landless workers andpeasants and their control over the natural resources, Ashok Chaudhary of the National Forum of ForestPeople and Forest Workers said. In addition to demanding a comprehensive legislation covering theissues of land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement, the dharna will also raise issues relating todams, thermal and nuclear power projects, urban displacement, forest rights and community governance,struggles against corporations and protection of livelihood rights of rural and urban communities in theform of statutory government entitlements like universal PDS and adequate beneficial rights to BPLmembers. They would oppose any move at introducing cash transfers. Organisations sponsoring thedharna include the National Alliance of People's Movements, National Forum of Forest People and ForestWorkers, National Hawkers' Federation, National Domestic Workers' Union, the SEZ Virodhi Manch, JanSangharsh Samanvaya Samiti, Narmada Bachao Andolan — Madhya Pradesh, Penn Urimai Iyakkam —Tamil Nadu, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti — Assam, Nadi Ghati Morcha — Chhattisgarh, Ghar BachaoGhar Banao Andolan — Mumbai, Adivasi Mul Nivasi Astitva Raksha Manch — Maharashtra, JanSangharsh Vahini, Matu Jan Saghatan — Uttarakhand, Machchi Maar Adhikar Sangharsh Samiti —Gujarat, Renuka Dam Sangharsh Samiti — Himachal Pradesh, Birsa Munda Bhu Adhikar Manch —Jharkhand, and Posco Prathirodh Sangram Samiti – Orissa. (The Hindu 3/8/11)Protest against draft land acquisition Bill (4)The State committee of the Highway Action Forum has called for maximum participation in the three-daydharna led by social activist Medha Patkar at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi in protest against the proposalsin the draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011. In a statement,action forum district unit secretary Giri Prasad said that instead of serving the thousands of peopledisplaced and affected by the various highway development projects, the proposals appeared to patentlyserve the interests of private sector construction monopolists. It alleged moves to privatise the highwayconstruction sector. Land to be acquired for the development of highways was being kept out of thepurview of the Bill. This gave rise to fears that such land would ultimately come under total control of theconstruction monopolists, the forum said. (The Hindu 5/8/11)Land Act a fraud, learn from Gujarat, says SC (4)Forcible acquisition of land has turned the 117-year-old Land Acquisition Act into a “fraud”, the SupremeCourt said on Thursday, calling the legislation a handiwork of “sick” minds with no concern for welfare ofthe poor. It went on to praise the Gujarat government, saying no cases of farmers or the poor beinguprooted from their land had come to court from the state. “The Act has become a fraud. It seems to havebeen devised by people with a sick mind who had scant regard for the welfare of the common man. It istime the Act is scrapped,” a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and H L Dattu observed, while hearingpetitions by farmers from Hapur in Uttar Pradesh who had lost 82 acres to a leather industrial complex.The 1894 Act is in the process of being repealed, with a new Bill set to be tabled in the Monsoon Sessionof Parliament. The Supreme Court compared states where “forcible acquisition” using an emergencyclause under the Act had almost become a norm to Gujarat. “But there is one state from where we do not