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

“Unless and until our demands are met we will not allow the administration to undertake work”, they said.(The Hindu 21/8/11)Police rescue three officials held hostage by anti POSCO activists (4)Paradip, Aug 22 : Police today rescued three officials, including a senior POSCO official, held hostage bythe activists of Bhitamati Surakhya Manch (BSM), a local outfit opposing POSCO steel plant and arrestedtwo activists. The anti-posco activists detained Paradip ADM Surjit Das, Special Land Acquisition Officerand POSCO DGM S N Singh near Nuagaon village while they were returning from the proposed poscosites. The local police later rushed to the spot and rescued the officials from the illegal detention by theactivists of Bhitamati Surakhya Manch and arrested two activists. The Special Land Acquisition officerhad lodged an FIR with the Kujanga police station about the illegal detention of the three officials whilethey were discharging their duty. Acting on the FIR, police registered a case and arrested two persons,Paradip SDPO Santanu Dash said. The arrested persons have been identified as Abhaya Rout ofNuagaon village and Sadasiba Das, an SUCI leader. They were produced before the JMFC court ofKujanga under section 143,341,294,353,506, 149 of IPC and section 7 of Criminal Law Amendment Actand later remanded into jail custody. (New Kerala 23/8/11)Supreme Court quashes Uttar Pradesh government's 300 acres land acquisition in Hapur (4)New Delhi, Aug 23 : The Supreme Court today quashed the acquisition by the Mayawati government inUttar Pradesh of 300 acres of land in Hapur district for leather industry. A bench comprising Justices G SSinghvi and H L Dattu declared the acquisition of land illegal holding that the acquisition was not forpublic purpose. The apex court ruled that the land under the Land Acquisition Act can be acquired onlyfor real public purpose. Earlier, counsel for the land owners contended before the court that the land hasbeen acquired for commercial purposes and the public purpose is nothing but a smokescreen to deprivethe land owners of their fertile land which is the only source of their livelihood. The Supreme Court hadpreviously laid emphasis on the overhauling of the century-old Land Acquisition Act, the colonial lawwhich was introduced by the British rulers to exploit the Indians. The Judges had also said that largechunks of land are being acquired to protect and promote the interest of the builders and the land mafia incollusion with the politicians and the bureaucrats. (New Kerala 24/8/11)Singur land vested, not acquired, claims Bengal government (4)Kolkata: The West Bengal government today claimed before the Calcutta High Court that it has vestedthe Singur land and not acquired it. Advocate General Anindya Mitra today submitted before Justice I PMukerji that the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011 provides for vesting of the landand that it has been enacted under Section 18 of the State list. Claiming that it has got nothing to do withthe Land Acquisition Act, 1894, Mitra submitted that it was a separate Act by which the state can vest theland. Replying to the challenge by Tata Motors Ltd of the Singur Act, he submitted that the two acts - theSingur Act and the Land Acquisition Act - were two different subjects of legislation. He submitted that thestate has not acquired the Singur land from TML as claimed by it, but has vested it under the new Act.Mitra submitted that when the Singur Act was made, TML had already abandoned the land where it wasto set up a plant for rolling out Nano cars. The matter would come up for hearing again on Monday.(Hindustan Times 26/8/11)Hooda government on backfoot over land allotment (4)CHANDIGARH: The Congress party touts Haryana as having the best land acquisition policy but someland allotment decisions, especially the charge of showing favours to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust(RGCT), have begun to push the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government on to the backfoot. The CongressledHooda government has been under pressure to defend its decision to allow the lease of around fiveacres of land in Gurgaon's Ullahawas village for a super-specialty eye hospital to be set up by the RGCT,notable among whose trustees are Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi. Thelargesse to the RGCT alone is not in the eye of the storm. There are larger issues. Oppposition partieshere have demanded that Governor Jagannath Pahadia reject an amendment to the Haryana LandCeiling Act by which having land limits for corporate bodies, leading builders, industrial houses,institutions and other categories have been withdrawn retrospectively by the Hooda government. TheIndian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have alleged that the Hoodagovernment is compromising Haryana's interests to play into the hands of corporates and big institutions.