Land acquisition

THE western UP farmers’ violent agitation has renewed interest in the Bill to amend the 1894 Land Acquisition Act. It was passed by the Lok Sabha in 2010 but a stubborn Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress stalled it in the Rajya Sabha. The 1894 Act empowers the government to forcibly acquire land for public purpose. Farmers’ protests, first in Nandigram-Singur and then in western Uttar Pradesh, exerted pressure to make the land acquisition law farmer-friendly. Starting with the NDA regime in 2003, Bills moved to pacify farmers have collapsed in the absence of a political consensus.

Things have changed slightly. With her electoral ambitions in West Bengal nearing fulfilment, Mamata may no longer insist on having her way on the land Bill. The pending Bill allows the Centre to use force, if need be, to take over 30 per cent of the land after private parties have secured 70 per cent of it from the owners in a direct deal. Mamata wants the ratio to be 90:10. Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh has also introduced a private Bill proposing a ban on government land acquisition for commercial purposes and profit-making.
Depriving a farmer of his land, which may be his only asset and source of livelihood, is an emotive issue, fraught with dangers. Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have passed laws, widely hailed as farmer-friendly. The UP law, passed after farmer protests first erupted over land takeover for the Delhi-Agra Expressway, has been upheld by the Supreme Court. Both UP and Haryana offer liberal rehabilitation terms, including annuity, to farmers. Disputes often arise over rates offered to land owners. Haryana provides the minimum floor rate, while critics of its policy seek market rates. In UP farmers down the road demand land rates offered in Greater Noida. Police brutality and politics have further complicated the issue. Hopefully, the amended Central law would take care of all ticklish issues with help from Mamata, lately on a political high, eyeing West Bengal’s chief ministership.