New Delhi: Everyone, including the government, agrees that many people in India have lost their land to factories, special economic zones (SEZs), dams, and other visible signs of development.
The problem is, no one knows for sure how many people.
And, because there is no exact and authoritative measure of the number of displaced, there is no measure of people who have not been paid a compensation.
Who Will Bear The Human Cost Of Development? (Graphic)
The numbers, or the lack of them, become significant as protests demanding justice and compensation for the displaced gather momentum across the country, and the government prepares to introduce two Bills—one on land acquisition and the other on resettlement.
Although there is no one source of data, statistics compiled from several studies show that between 1947 and 2000, between 20 million and 60 million Indians lost their land to industrial projects. That number could have increased significantly since then. In 1999-2000, the manufacturing sector, including construction, and gas and water supply contributed Rs4.38 trillion to the economy. In 2006-07, it contributed Rs7.07 trillion.
The introduction of the two Bills in the monsoon session of Parliament—the amendment to the 1894 Land Acquisition Act and the National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007—will mean that a Central legislation on rehabilitation will be debated by lawmakers for the first time in the country’s history. That’s too late, say some experts.
The resettlement Bill will make the process of deciding the quantum of compensation more transparent, and will ensure that payments happen on time. The amendment in the land acquisition Act will ban companies from using government machinery to acquire land, and will bring the price at which land is acquired for industrial projects closer to the market value. And, it will also double the solatium, or consolation money, to 60% over and above the compensation that will be paid for any involuntary takeover of land.
“These are important Bills. We are currently collecting evidences (opinions) of experts and government departments. They will be taken up in the next session,” said Kalyan Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament and chairman of the 28-member standing committee on rural development.
A standing committee is a permanent committee of members of Parliament that considers Bills and issues and passes on its recommendations to Parliament.
Several groups at the forefront of the campaign against forcible land acquisition say the Bills do little for landowners in rural areas who are mostly poor and have very little power to voice opposition when their land is taken away. “We do not want forcible land acquisition. There must be some more option assessment where there is minimum displacement,” said activist Medha Patkar, convenor of the National Alliance of People’s Movements.