Land Acquisition and Development: Who Gets the Actual Benefit?

Abstract

Land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship- these are the four major factors of production in an economy. While labor is provided by the working class and capital and entrepreneurship by the capitalist class; there is a major role of government in providing the first one which is land. The government has been carrying out land acquisition for various developmental projects in India at different times. They acquire land either for projects that are set up by the government itself (for example, land being acquired at Ranchi in Jharkhand for setting up the Jharkhand Central University) or for projects being set up by multinational corporations in our country such as the land acquisitions being carried out in Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha for the Korean steel company POSCO. These two are only a few of the recent examples. There have been innumerable cases of such nature in the past too like Singur and Nandigram.It is vouched that these acquisitions are vital for the development of the country. But what about the development of those people who are displaced due to these land acquisitions? Certain communities and the environment are grossly affected by these projects for which land is being acquired. These communities lose their land, houses, source of livelihood and sustenance and come up in a conflict with the state. Their economic activities are disrupted due to relocation to different places which usually lack infrastructural facilities. The owners of the land are paid too less as compensation amount and they also receive an emotional setback because they have been staying there since ages. The environment is also degraded because mostly these cases are in sensitive environmental zones. In an age when we are talking about inclusive development, how can we turn a deaf ear to the problems of those people who are being displaced in the wake of these land acquisitions?The government who is influenced by the industry favours these acquisitions in the name of development. The opposition party opposes these acquisitions just for namesake. There have been cases in which the moment the opposition party came into power; they cleared the same project which they had been opposing earlier. The archaic Land Acquisition Act, 1894 which was being followed in our country has been amended and merged with resettlement and rehabilitation. The new Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 promises to be very comprehensive taking into account all the aspects related to land acquisition. Nothing can be said with certainty about the outcome of this law. The political economy of land acquisition needs to undergo a change and there should be development of all if development at all is the motive behind these acquisitions. This paper based on an extensive review of available literature would seek to reflect on various aspects of land acquisition and inclusive development.