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On the issue of land acquisition for public purposes, there have been inadequacies in compensation, and in ensuring that interest of all stake-holders who suffer in this process are taken into account. The reconciliation of land rights and development
is now becoming a hot political issue. The unrest that we have seen recently in West Bengal in Nandigram against the land acquisition for a SEZ, and in Singur against the acquisition for the Tata Motors project, are an indication of what we can expect for the ambitious programme of SEZ and mega-project developments that are being planned. Industrialists have to avoid acquiring cultivable lands. Cultivable and uncultivable lands exist side by side wherever there is a settled population. The only large stretches of uncultivable land that would be available would be in reserved forests, which, in any case, are out of bounds or in remote desert and mountain areas quite unsuitable for SEZs, urban expansion or mega projects. Even so-called wastelands in settled areas are used by local people for firewood or grazing or fodder. Other non-cultivable lands have important ecological support functions particularly for water management.

The central issue that has to be addressed is not the encroachment on land for agriculture, but displacement of people. The numbers displaced by development projects in post-independence India are not known because the government has not released any reliable figures on this. Informally, estimates put the number at 40-50 Million. Almost all of these people are involuntary displacers. That is because we have relied for too long on the Land Acquisition Act of 1894, which allows the government to exercise the right of eminent domain for compulsorily acquiring private lands for public purposes.

Rehabilitation, inadequate in the best of cases, was mostly absent. Compensation followed the requirements of the colonial land law and was available to only those who could show ownership of land. Compensation was pegged to 'market' value; however, given that the land market in India was not developed for a number of reasons, and given that recorded transactions invariably undervalued real market rates - and do so to this day - this did not address the issue of fair compensation. With the result that the acquirer of land continued to be privileged under the law as in colonial times.

There are problems with the process and the rules about compensation under the Act. These difficulties can be fixed. The real problem, however, is the purposes for which the Act has been used. The Act is silent on what constitutes public purpose and has been used to acquire land for commercial projects on the argument that there would be some collateral generation of public benefit like food security or employment or self-reliance.

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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.