Presently a topic is on discussion among the people of India from Jantar mantar to the village markets, the land acquisition ordinance which seems to be tabled in the parliament during the upcoming budget session. The ruling party is in a hurry mood to pass it where as the oppositions are strongly opposing the bill. Protests are being seen throughout the country by several organizations opposing this ordinance. Notable social activist Anna Hazare is also protesting opposing this ordinance. At the same time President Pranab Mukharjee delivered his speech in favor of this ordinance. Questions are arising why so much protests as well as discussions are going on this ordinance? Who is right regarding this ordinance? who is the real well wisher, the ruling government or the opposition? Why Annaji is protesting, who was happy with the change in government? Let's do a deep analysis to find out the answers to these questions.
The land acquisition ordinance is one of the many ordinances brought by the brand new Modi government in the last some months. This ordinance has made some major changes in the structure of the existing "Land acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement act 2013" passed by the then UPA government. This act was passed smoothly in both houses of the parliament in 2013, which was supported by the then opposition and present ruling party BJP. Another question arises how an act became so obsolete in less than two years that needed a major change? The answer may be known to our policy makers.
One of the changes made is the amendment of section 10(A), which abolishes the SIA(Social impact assessment) for the expanded sectors like Defence, National security and Rural infrastructure( which includes Electrification, Industrial corriders, affordable housing projects, infrastructures including PPP etc.). This amendment has created irk among several organisations all over the country. So what is this SIA, as told earlier it stands for social impact assessment which is undertaken on the project affected areas. This SIA has been providing several rights to project affected people. Before setting up of any project the consent of affected people are undertaken. Several grama Sabhas are also conducted and it is mandatory that more than 80% affected people should agree otherwise no project can be set up. So the new law is going to affect thousands of lives in the name of industrialisation. To understand the drawback of abolishing SIA can be understood by taking an example, let a project is finalised in PPP mode which is to be set up in your locality, you have got a notice to vacate your land and house. and according to the ordinance you have to silently leave your land, house everything and accept a compensation( twice if urban and 4times if rural) and go towards uncertainty.It is completely unacceptable.
Another problem in this ordinance is there is no provision for the assessment of type of the land. That means any land can be given for industrialisation that may be a very fertile land. This is a direct threat to the agriculture sector. India is a country where more than 1.2 billion people residing within its territory. The first duty of the government is to provide quality food, water, environment to its citizens, which cant be achieved by establishing plants on agricultural lands. Industries can give employment not quality air or water or food.. So provisions should be made ensuring not giving fertile lands for industrialisation. Another thing is in India millions are the farmers by name, neither they have own lands nor resources they only depend upon land lords for cultivation, the previous law was ensuring a small amount of compensation for them but the new one compensates only land losers not the small real farmers. This ordinance, if made a law will adversely impact these small farmers. So some provisions should be made for them.
Though the proposed ordinance has some really good features like centralisation of all existing acquisition acts to a common platform. The ease in getting land for development projects will boost economic developments. This will accelerate the ambitious projects like make in India. Lawmakers can not close eyes to the problems discussed above. India is not a country like China. The same types of laws made china a manufacturing hub, made it the second largest economy in the world but those laws also pushed china into a country with scarcity of lands, bad quality water and a polluted environment. So the government should review and rethink in bringing this ordinance as an act. Some corrections should be made to this ordinance so that it can be an balanced act for both bagriculture as well as industrialistaion.
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