land is a limited resource. Other resources that are being denuded like forest stand on land, and some other nonrenewable resources like minerals are beneath land. Similar to land, water is also a limited resource. Water finds its course by the laws of physics over land. Human civilisation grew on land, but usually along abundant water resources.
When the colonial rulers wanted to expand their control and intensify economic exploitation, they devised laws which were deprivatory in nature without adequate sensitivity and concern for those who stood deprived, for example, of their property as in land. The colonial power propounded an undemocratic concept of “eminent domain”. What the colonial power considered as “public purpose” could provide adequate justification to deprive a subject of his landed properties. This brought into existence a law of the colonial era under the name and style of land Acquisition Act, 1894. For serving the needs of the corporate world of the colonial era, some amendments were inserted towards the end of the first quarter of the twentieth century by the same colonial rulers. The admirable patience of the citizens of the Republic of India enabled the continued operation of this Act. Through the observations and interventions of the Supreme Court, some amendments, marginally enhancing the compensation, etc., were inserted in the year 1984. Ironically, the 1894 Act with fringe amendments in 1984 continued to govern us till the first day of January, 2014.
The 1894 Act continued to dominate the scene and the deprived continued to struggle to get justice through judicial forums The non-exhaustively defined “public purpose” was pressed into service very often in an arbitrary manner. Deprivation of Right to Property has its inevitable other ramifications on shelter, livelihood, future security and many other related facilities. The State Governments by and large started aggressively acquiring private land, including fertile agriculture land, for subserving the “public purpose”. The 1894 Act had a built-in provision to obliterate the right of the owner to raise any objection (which required initially quasi-judicial and eventually judicial consideration) by resort to yet another built-in provision through which the Government could declare an acquisition to be “emergent”. This power was rampantly misused. The High Courts and the Supreme Court were faced with several cases, which amply demonstrated that this power was manifestly abused. They came to hold that a right to object has a flavour of Fundamental Right and could not be obliterated, unless there was a real emergent need subserving any imminent national interest. In a number of cases, the Supreme Court came down heavily on the Government for abusing this power for undertaking acquisition for pretended public purpose through oblique methods. For example, the court noticed that acquisition for nongovernment companies was made under the garb of “public purpose”. It further noticed that when vast agriculture lands were acquired for the so-called “public purpose” resorting to emergency powers, such land was eventually handed over to private builders. The court further found that the mandatory stipulations regarding the procedural safeguards and payment of adequate compensation were flouted with impunity.
Coming nearer home to Odisha, it is a matter of record that compensation and rehabilitation of some of those who were deprived of their lands for construction of the Hirakud Dam continue to be denied their legitimate expectations and rights. The owners of lands acquired for other irrigation projects have continued to be deprived of their rights over very long periods. The recent CAG report demonstrates that ayacuts of irrigation projects have been mindlessly acquired for the purposes of industry and several industrial houses have been favoured with huge quantities of fertile agricultural land, which continue to remain unutlised by the corporate entities for the professed purpose for which they were acquired. There was persistent acquisitions of agricultural land whereas barren land of the Government remained constant and unutilised. The CAG observed that this trend can pose a threat to food security.
Such instances of the abuse of the colonial power were a matter of national debate over the last several years. Despite organised attempts to frustrate the promulgation of any new law, a new Act was passed by Parliament in 2013. This Act professed to make the process of deprivation and related compensation more rational, reasonable, transparent and adequately ameliorative. The Act took into consideration the impact of the acquisition on the related environment. This new Act came into operation on January 1, 2014 as a progressive pro-people legislation and was hailed as a “New Year gift”.
In just about a month of the present Central Government coming to power, strangely enough all the political parties ruling in different parts of India have started opposing this Act. It has been described as a hurdle in the progress of industrialisation. The precondition of the environmental impact study for taking a conscious decision for acquisition has also been held as a cause of undue delay whereas the requirements of study/clearances (post-acquisition) had rendered the concerned acquisitions unwarranted, impermissible and futile. The embargo of acquisition of fertile agricultural land has been styled as anti-industrial development. The mandate of the Act to have a consultative process leading to (dominant majority) consent of the affected persons or the Gram Sabhas (inherently and essentially a step in furtherance of democracy) has been criticised as not industry-friendly. The 2007 Act of recognition, restoration and vesting of the rights of Scheduled Tribes and Traditional Forest Dwellers has been described as an impediment for rapid industrialisation and economic growth. Rehabilitation as a precondition for displacement and a favourable package of compensation has been called irksome, burdensome and contrary to the interest of industry.
These are alarming signals indicative of the lingering colonial mindset. Unreasonable deprivation and related insensitive neglect are the foundation of social instability leading to increased Maoist influence and other disruptive activities. Acquisition of land for legitimate industrial interests has been duly protected under new Act. It is, therefore, natural to infer that the present motivated attack on the new Act is to rob the poor to favour the rich. The Parliament and many legislative Assemblies have a large number of representatives who are rich by the prevalent standards and appear to be insensitive to enriching and empowering the struggling elements at the grassroots level and are apparently in favour of the rich in the garb of industrial development. There is cause for worry in such a situation that a new pro-people Act promulgated after a long delay is under unreasonable attack so as to frustrate its implementation soon after its birth, though preceded by prolonged deliberations.
Odisha has also joined this orchestrated cacophony of the attack on an overdue “fair deal”. The provisions of the new Act are partly to prevent the abuse of the hitherto-existing colonial law to favour the rich at the expense of the poor. To reiterate, land is a limited resource. When owned by the Government, it is a largesse of the State and when owned by private persons it is their “property”, very often being the source of their home and hearth, livelihood, socioeconomic security and other related facilities.
let us not forget that food is not an original product of industry. One is amazed at the insensitivity of the tendentious attack on a pro-people and welfare-oriented legislation. At this juncture, the citizens have to watch out and raise their voice as loud as possible so that the fortunate elected few do not trample over the essential interests of the unfortunate millions who elected them. And this certainly concerns us.
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)