In India, 69 percent population lives in villages, where most of the populace is associated with agriculture and allied activities. But snatching the agricultural land by the governments in the name of urban and industrial development leaves these Ruralites in the lurch, with a stigma of being landless, unsettled and unemployed. However, the Governments claim that the agricultural land acquired for the development purposes is sought with the agreement of the farmers and they are given lucrative prices and benefits for the land acquired. If the government’s claims are true, then why does these farmers sit on roads to raise their voice against the land acquisition?
Why under the leadership of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS), which is affiliated to the All-India Kisan Sabha, farmers were halting the civil work on 26th June, being carried out by the KIADB on land acquired in 2012 for corporates?
Protesting Karnataka Farmers-Photo-Aiks
The CPIM on its FB page reported that the land acquisition took place during the BJP regime. A total of 12,500 acres was forcibly acquired using police power in the name of industrial development. Farmers have been protesting for the past 916 days, demanding additional compensation in line with the Supreme Court’s verdict.
The farmers are demanding either a fair compensation and actual establishment of industries or the return of the land. KPRS State President Com. U. Basavaraj, along with KPRS and CITU district leaders, led the struggle from the front and successfully stopped the work.
Why did the Andhra Pradesh government use excessive force, intimidation and illegal arrests against farmers who were protesting against the forced acquisition of 8458 acres of land for the Indosol company in Karedu village in Nellore district to build a solar plant? Condemning the action of the police, CPIM demands the immediate withdrawal of the land acquisition proposal by the state government.
Agitating Punjab farmers, photo courtesy of Andrej Singh.
Why is the Punjab government acquiring the 40,000 acres of agricultural land of 158 villages under its newly framed land pooling policy for creating Urban Housing without ensuring their settlement and employment? Whether urban development should be done at the cost of ruining well settled villages? Why is the Punjab government forcing the shifting of the populace from villages to already burdened, unplanned and badly managed cities? Shouldn’t the government manage and take care of the presently mismanaged cities instead of erecting new concrete structures?
The aggrieved farmers of Punjab are preparing for the agitation against this decision of the government under the farmers’ unions?
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal, on July 01, announced a series of protests to start from Ludhiana on July 15 to safeguard the interests of farmers whose 40,000 acres of land are set to be forcefully acquired for peanuts by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government under a 1995 State land acquisition act aimed at looting farmers and fillings its own coffers.
In a meeting chaired by the chief minister Bhagwant Mann, the Punjab cabinet on June 02 gave its nod to the new land pooling policy, which is initially being launched in 27 cities and towns of the state.
After the meeting, in a press conference, renewable energy minister Aman Arora divulged that the new policy involves landowners, promoters, and companies as stakeholders in the development process and its aim is to curb illegal colonies by the land mafias in the state which are growing in an unplanned and haphazard way.
What is the New Policy of Punjab?
If we see the claim under the new policy, the farmer, inter alia, will receive a 1,000-square-yard residential plot and a 200-square-yard commercial plot for every one acre of land contributed.
About other benefits, Money Control reports that if nine acres are pooled, the landowner will receive three acres (33 percent) back. They can either develop group housing projects like high-rise buildings or sell the land to builders. For those contributing 50 acres, they will get 30 acres (60 percent) back, meant for plotted development.
In the case of land pooling for industrial and institutional sectors, 1,600 sq yards of industrial or institutional land will be given in lieu of one acre of land. The land pooling scheme for commercial sectors allows for an 800 sq yard plot to be given for one acre of land, but in the case of the land pooling policy for integrated industrial parks, a 1,000 sq yard industrial plot, 300 sq yard residential plot and 100 sq yard commercial plot will be given for one acre of land.
The Government claims that one of the most emphasized features of the policy is its voluntary nature and no land will be taken without the farmer’s written consent in the form of a No Objection Certificate (NOC). The Policy states that until the farmers receive possession of the developed plots as per their eligibility, the government will pay them an interim compensation of Rs 30,000 per acre annually for up to three years.
But here arises the questions- if the new land pooling policy is so lucrative and beneficial for the farmers, then why it is being criticized by the farmer unions and opposition parties? Why are they warning to start agitation against it?
What do opposition parties say?
Stating the policy, a “Ponzi scheme”, Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar, on June 30, alleged that the land of farmers is being seized by enticing them with false promises of four times the profit.
“This scheme has been designed with the intention to loot Punjab. Government officials are falsely claiming that farmers will not lose their land. Once a notification is issued, a farmer cannot even sell his land. If an owner cannot sell his land, isn’t this a violation of his rights?” Jakhar asked.
Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, president of the Punjab State Congress, @RajaBrar_INC 0n June3 tweeted, “I wonder what is the need of acquiring 24000 acres of prime agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. It will simply destroy Punjab’s economy that is based on agriculture. Let me warn you, when you try to undermine the foundation of the economy, that is agriculture, the entire edifice will collapse and come crashing down.”
Addressing a press conference on July 01, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal alleged that 40,000 acres of land of 158 villages were being acquired under a purported land pooling scheme which was in fact a land-grabbing scheme. “The AAP Delhi leadership wants to collect Rs 10,000 crore for the party. This is the reason they have decided to acquire 40,000 acres of land across the State under the Punjab Regional Town Planning and Development Act, 1995 instead of the central Land Acquisition Act, 2013”.
Mr Badal said while the Central Land Acquisition Act, 2013 called for giving compensation at the rate of four times the collector rate besides a resettlement scheme, the 1995 Punjab Act allowed leeway to the AAP government to exclude land parcels from acquisition as well as lease, auction or allot the acquired land.
Badal alleges, “The government is now set to meet these requirements be it exempting land from acquisition under Section 56 of the 1995 Punjab Act or allowing for auction, lease or allotment of land to favorites under Section 43 of the State Act”.
Alleging discrimination, Badal highlighted how under the new acquisition, the small farmers would be the biggest losers. He said those possessing 50 acres of land would be eligible to get back 60 per cent of the same whereas those possessing nine acres would only get 33 per cent back. He said farmers would also not be allowed to sell the land, take loan on it or undertake Change of Land Use (CLU) once the notification for acquisition was done.
Asserting that the SAD would not allow the land acquisition to go through at any cost, Badal said “We will not allow this loot to take place”. He said the protests would be held in all cities where land was set to be acquired.
What are the fears of the farmers?
Punjab farmers are anxious about their future fate, what will they do to upbring their family after their agricultural land gets out of their hand?
Sharing the resentment voice of the farmers, Angrej Singh Bhadaur, Press Secretary, Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Dakonda, Punjab quotes the concerns raised by the union – Was there really any need to convert so much cultivable land into concrete jungles? Most of the land being acquired under government control is very fertile land that yields three crops a year. Land is such a fixed resource that its supply cannot be increased. Due to the construction of essential projects for urbanization and development, its quantity for agriculture is decreasing day by day.
Already, more than 22,000 acres of fertile land in Punjab has been swallowed up by the Bharat Mala project, which Punjabis do not need at all. On the contrary, this project is going to become a tool for corporate loot of the people. The government has not conducted any survey to determine the need to bring land under government control on such a large scale; No consultation has been done with any section of stakeholders affected by this project i.e. farmers and other villagers, developers, panchayats etc. How many plots, colonies and constructed residential flats are already lying vacant in the cities, are they not already more than the requirement considering the current demand? In fact, this policy has not been brought to provide land for residential, commercial or industrial purposes but to create a land bank for corporates and land mafias.
Bhadaur cites ‘The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 (the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013)’, which is abbreviated as the LARR Act. He adds that after decades of intense public pressure, the Central Government passed the above Act in 2013, repealing the Land Acquisition Act of 1894. As is clear from the text of this Act, several of its provisions are more sensitive to the rights of landowners and people affected by the acquisition process than the previous Act, such as providing compensation of two times the average market rate of the last three years in cities and four times in the case of villages, obtaining consent of 70 percent and 80 percent in the case of private institutions while acquiring land for public purposes, conducting an independent and It included provisions on getting a social impact survey conducted by an autonomous body and making provision for rehabilitation and resettlement, etc. Even after half a dozen amendments since 2013, the basic form of this act is still in place. The government has to declare compensation in advance for acquiring land under this act and it is likely to be increased through the intervention of the courts.
Farmers Union also views that after the implementation of the LARR Act 2013, governments and corporations started finding it difficult to acquire land. They felt that it takes a long time of 1.5 to 2 years to acquire land under this Act; money has to be paid in advance; landowners go to courts to increase compensation; time and money are spent due to 70/80 percent consent of the people and social impact survey etc. Therefore, governments and other public institutions started looking for some other alternative and started eroding the basic spirit of this Act through loopholes in the land pool policy suggested under this Act. State governments can make necessary rules under state laws while implementing this land pool policy on the ground. Under this provision, many loopholes have been inserted in Punjab’s recent Land Pool Policy which are against the basic spirit of the LARR Act 2013.
Why the New Land Pool Policy? Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Dakonda itself answers- “The Punjab government could not even dream of acquiring such a large amount of land under the LARR Act 2013. To do so, it would have to pay two or four times the market rate of the land in advance, which is not possible given the financial condition of the Punjab government; it would have to obtain the consent of 70 percent of the affected people, which was not possible; it would have to get a social impact survey from an independent autonomous body, the report of which was very unlikely to be positive; it would have to make arrangements for the rehabilitation and resettlement of the affected people, which would have been a very expensive, difficult and long-term task. Therefore, this scheme was devised by making loopholes in the policy suggested under this Act by using the provisions of local state acts. They have devised an easy and cheap mantra to acquire land without any payment, consent, survey and rehabilitation – “Let us convert your acres into yards and enrich you”.
Stating the claims of voluntary nature of the scheme as false promise, the farmers’ union states – “To make its policy appear pro-landowner, the Punjab government has put all its efforts into propagating the fact that ‘not even an inch of land of any farmer will be taken without his “will”. This seems even absurd to hear. If the landowner with 5-7 acres lying in the middle of a colony for development in two to two and a half hundred acres does not have the “will” to give the land to the government, then how will the planned layout of that colony be implemented? Will this piece of land in the middle be covered with paddy and will there be a shopping complex built around it? Therefore, it is a complete lie that land will not be taken without “will”. In fact, there is a provision in the scheme itself that such pieces of land will be forcibly acquired under LARR 2013. There has been an attempt to hide this fact from being made public so that wherever there is any talk of land being acquired forcibly, everything appears to be voluntary. Anyway, governments have many ways to twist their arms like CLU (Change of Land Use) etc. Therefore, if any landowner does not give his ‘willingness’, then it will be taken ‘forcibly’.”
The major point of concern is about the displacement of the settled people. The union doubts if this scheme is implemented indiscriminately, it will have many adverse effects on different sections of the society. Villages will be depopulated, the culture associated with them will end; the agricultural profession will be wiped out; auxiliary businesses related to agriculture like animal husbandry, dairying, vegetable/fruit cultivation etc. will be closed; public interest government schemes like MNREGA will be closed; people doing non-agricultural occupations in villages like tailors, barbers, motor mechanics, small shopkeepers, confectioners, cobblers etc. will be displaced; what is more, this unnecessary urbanization will swallow the villages and become a reason for the displacement of the settled people.
The farmers’ union is looking at this scheme as three black laws of agriculture. The union doubts that this issue has deep potential. If the government succeeds in grabbing land, then the villages will be displaced. But the union sees a silver lining in the way it is being opposed and the farmer organizations are coming forward; the people of Punjab will definitely succeed in giving a befitting reply to this attack.
