The Opposition’s demand for changes in the land bill raises the hope that there may be some give and take between it and the government. The bill may be improved even at this stage. The government has reportedly agreed to remove a clause requiring both monetary compensation and allotment of new land to the families whose land is acquired for irrigation projects. These are small concessions in a law that threatens to scupper industrial and urban projects subjecting them to years of negotiations and permission- seeking. Fair compensation to land owners is the keynote of the bill of 2012. The emphasis is on protecting those who are parting with land. It is presumed that such transactions are inherently coercive. What is lost sight of is the importance of a shift from farming to more productive uses. A social impact assessment committee is also envisaged.
There are unnecessary curbs on acquisition of irrigated and multi-cropped land. There are exceptions in the case of mining, railways, highways, atomic energy and petroleum pipelines though the rules relating to compensation apply there also. However, the state governments can now choose the threshold beyond which the stipulated obligations impede private purchases. The bill is based on debatable premises such as the farmer being particularly attached to his land and that industrialization has disruptive effects. No party, certainly not the BJP, has questioned these assumptions. Consequently the focus has shifted from the importance of manufacturing, infrastructure and housing in evolving India’s growth story.
