New Delhi: The Central government is
finally getting ready to collect data on people displaced—and also
compensated—to facilitate industrial growth in the country. As a first
step, it has asked all state governments to share information on land
acquired by them since 1947, the year of India’s independence, for
development purposes and also the details of compensation paid for such
acquisitions.
Inadequate law: A file picture
of villagers protesting against West
Bengal government at the site of Tata Motors factory in Singur. The
Union government has been criticized on several occasions in the recent
past for not doing enough to ensure that sufficient laws are in place
to protect the dispossessed. (PTIAs of now, there are no official
records on the number of people
who have lost their land to make way for industrial development in the
country, as reported by
Mint on 8 May.
In the absence
of any official data, estimates of people affected by projects vary
widely. Some reports have indicated that the number of people affected
by projects between 1947 and 2000 range anywhere between 20 million and
60 million. This figure could have risen significantly since 2000 as
the country saw unprecedented industrial growth in the past one decade.
So is the number of those who were not compensated, according to
experts.
The Central government will also hold meetings
with state government officials in the next two months to review
details of the ongoing and completed projects in each state. The
meetings will discuss compensation packages and resettlement
arrangements, among other issues, said a government official, who did
not wish to be identified.
“We need to build a database of
such information for any effective intervention wherever cases of
rehabilitation are still pending,” said another official of the
ministry, also requesting anonymity.
Estimates of people affected by
projects from independence to 2000 vary: from 20 million to 60 million
The government has
come under attack on several occasions in
recent times—especially when troubles erupted over acquiring land for
industrial use—for not doing enough to ensure that sufficient laws are
in place to protect the dispossessed.
The Union rural
development ministry’s directive to the states, asking them to furnish
the names of the displaced and check whether compensation has been paid
to them, comes at a time when the government plans to introduce two
Bills—one on land acquisition and the other on rehabilitation—in the
coming monsoon session of Parliament.
Once approved by
lawmakers, the new legislations are expected to rein in the sweeping
powers states currently enjoy to acquire land and put in place a
stricter mechanism for rehabilitation. There is at present no central
legislation in the country to protect the interests of the displaced
when compensation or resettlement promises are breached.
One
of the Bills—The National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2007—is
aimed at making rehabilitation policy far more transparent. Also, once
it is passed by lawmakers, the states will be bound to disclose the
details of the displaced in all industrial projects and place the data
in the public domain, for example, on the Internet.
The
Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007, also expected to be placed in
Parliament in the next session amending a law dating back to 1894,
attempts to reduce governments’ role in land acquisition. There will be
a precondition for government assistance to companies while buying
land. Only after a company completes 70% of the acquisition can the
government help it buy the rest 30% of the land.
Some campaign groups and experts, however, called the government’s
latest attempts “too late”.
According
to them, while the rural ministry plans to set up a monitoring cell
with some two dozen posts to regulate proper rehabilitation, little
accountability has been placed on the government for violation of the
law.
“It is good that the government has realized its
follies and will correct future actions. But it does not cover the
damage already done,” said D. Bandyopadhyay, a former bureaucrat who
headed a Planning Commission committee that looked into development and
extremism issues. The displacement has over the years given rise to
violent movements, he said. “There are some four crore people who do
not own land and are now cannon fodder for violent movements.”
http://www.livemint.com/2008/05/12003329/Centre-asks-state-governments.html
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