From Despair to Despondency: Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement
On 2 July 2008, the representative of AITPN appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Rural Development, made an oral presentation and provided answers to the specific questions raised by Honourable Members of Parliament on the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007 and the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2007. AITPN's representative was invited following the submission of the recommendations adopted at the North East Regional Consultation organised by AITPN on 16-17 February 2008 on the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007 and the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2007.
Earlier, on 11 February 2008, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development issued advertisements in the newspapers inviting comments on the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007 and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2007 to be submitted by 22 February 2008. The deadline was awfully short and did not reflect the seriousness of the Committee. Most indigenous peoples’ organisations and civil society groups were caught unaware and could not submit their comments while a number of organisations decided to boycott the Committee.
As the participants of the North East Regional Conference observed, India, its parliamentarians and citizenry have two stark choices with regard to the Bills.
Option 1: The government can remain arbitrary and undemocratic in function. It can adopt laws like the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007 and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2007 which fail to provide effective means to realize rights, remove judicial oversight, further impoverish the victims of displacement, and catalyse armed conflicts; conflicts that will incur ever greater security expenditure from the public purse.
Option 2: India can choose to become democratic in function and adopt laws that make the exercise of sovereign powers an exception, make the State and companies accountable for arbitrary exercise of sovereign power, uphold due process and the supremacy of judiciary and accepts judicial oversight on both for land acquisition and compensation, and include those whose lands are taken away in the name of “national interest”, “public purpose” and ultimately address the root causes of armed conflicts which will allow reduced security and increased welfare expenditures.
The Government of India brought forth the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007 and the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2007 purportedly to strike a balance between the need for land for development and protecting the interests of the persons from whom land is statutorily acquired. Similarly, the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007 seeks to amend various provisions to balance between the need for land for development and other public purposes and protecting the interests of the persons whose lands are statutorily acquired. The Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2007 seeks to provide a statutory backing to the various provisions made in the National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007.
However, in reality both the Bills are flawed in substance and will have far reaching negative consequences, if enacted in their present form. Both the Bills have been opposed by various sections of the society. Since the land Acquisition Act came into force in 1894, both colonial British and Independent India invoked the Act to forcibly acquire the lands (individual and collective) in the name of socalled “public purpose”. In the last 113 years, “public purpose” has meant arbitrary abuse of the sovereign power of the State to forcibly acquire lands from the poorest of the poor initially for the State and then transfer the same to the companies. Indigenous/ tribal peoples have been disproportionate victims of displacement and lack of rehabilitation. The tribals constituted about 8% of the total population of India at 1991 census. According to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs of the Government of India, by 1990s an estimated 85.39 lakhs displaced indigenous/tribal people constituted 55.16% of total displaced people in India. An overwhelming 64.23% of these displaced people were not rehabilitated.
The North East Regional Conference submitted its recommendations to the Parliamentary Committee which has since been published in the report of AITPN, From Despair to Despondency.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee is yet to submit its reports to the Parliament.