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How can a role for the community be created in a commercial transaction? In the case of labour, we recognize that the transaction between the employer and the individual worker can be modulated through collective bargaining. Hence, workers can
organize in a group and negotiate the terms of their employment. Can we not accept such a concept of collective bargaining for land acquisition?

What we need is a Land Purchase Act that would apply to any large-scale purchase of land by a commercial entity. The Act must specify a process for negotiation between the buyer and the affected community, including a procedure for determining who can speak for and negotiate on behalf of the affected community.

It must strike a balance between community and individual land rights, for instance, by specifying the minimum proportion of right-holders who have to assent to the terms negotiated. It must include an obligation to provide alternatives to those whose livelihoods are lost. The state will have a role, as it does in labour relations, as an arbiter of last resort. The essential point is that we move beyond compensation to ensuring that the affected community shares in the gains from development.

Facing protests over land acquisition for setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the government is considering enacting a law making it mandatory for industries to rehabilitate the displaced people before developing projects. Following the recommendation by an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), private developers should buy 70 per cent of the land at prevailing market prices with government acquiring the rest. A number of changes are being made in the rules relating to the land acquisition for SEZs, including placing a cap on prime agricultural land bought for the SEZs. The changes, aimed at ensuring fair valuation, are expected to be passed by the winter session of Parliament, along with the amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, which is now before a standing committee.

Piloted by the Rural Development Ministry, the Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R & R) Bill is currently being examined by the law ministry. Besides enacting a new R & R Act, the Land Acquisition Act too would be amended to give the new law an over-riding effect over the Land Acquisition Act and the Special Economic Zone Act. The compulsory land acquisition for industrial projects including Special Economic Zones should not be allowed "at any cost" in the policy. Land acquisition must also be done in a manner that fully protects the interests of farmers and those livelihoods which are dependent on the lands being acquired.

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Dr. Gursharan Singh Kainth started his career as Lecturer at Post Graduate Dept. of Economics, Government College, Gurdaspur, and later at Khalsa College; Amritsar, specializes in Quantitative & Development Economics. Has the distinction of serving Punjab Agricultural Univ, Ludhiana, for more than 2 decades and remained Director-Principal of Saint Soldier Management & Technical Institute, Jalandhar. Currently, heading GAD Institute of Development Studies, Amritsar, a self-financed research institute. Has been honoured with various awards, including Guru Draunacharya Samman, Vijay Rattan Award, etc.
Article posted on January 17, 2009.