Generating Public Consciousness around Land Acquisition for Private Industries

Abstract

In course of my research on the acquisition of agricultural land for private industries, I came across a variety of public opinion which justified acquisitions. None of the supporters of land acquisition was ready to face the question of food security at the household level, let alone the role of local self-governments, which was endangered by the takeover of fertile land for industries by the government. Under the three sets of public opinion described in the paper, generating public consciousness regarding land acquisition for industries seemed to be a difficult task which should begin by exploring the justification of land acquisition for industries, in the context of food security and land reform. Here I have made an attempt to study the opinions of people around land expropriation with an aim to generate public awareness as regards the ground realities of government policy including the recent Land Acquisition Resettlement and Rehabilitation Act 2011.