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Vol no. 15 Issue No. 88

Expert Panel

Prithvish Nag

Vice Chancellor, MG Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi

Ajit Tyagi

Koteswaram Professor, MoES, Air Vice Marshal (Retd) and Former DG, IMD

B Meenakumari

Deputy Director General, Fisheries, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi

Saraswati Raju

Professor, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Sachidanand Sinha

Professor, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Inside this issue

Backgrounder

Land Acquisition Policy in India

By: Staff Reporter

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency LARR Act introduced a mandatory social impact assessment to correct the historical injustices. The ordinance by the current government overturns this clause.

Cover story

Land and Livelihood: Debating the Land Acquisition Law

By: Chinmoyee Mallik

The New Land Act of 2013 was meant to remove the historic injustice perpetrated on land owners and sought to incorporate those dependent on agricultural land for livelihood. However, proposed amendments to the New Act will undermine its major clauses, and fail to achieve the purpose it was aimed for.

Land perspectives

Land Acquisition and Urbanisation

By: Vijai Singh

Lessons learnt from large scale acquisition of land for planned development of Delhi under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 have gone on to frame the new Land Acquisition Act of 2013. Yet, some major concerns remain unaddressed to this day.

Agricultural Land use Changes in India

By: Sucharita Sen

Agricultural land converted to non-agricultural uses is often understood as ‘development’. While high growth, rich states have managed to hold on, the low growth poorer states have lost significant amounts of land under plough causing distress to their agricultural communities.

Do Bigha Zameen: Dispossessing the Farmer

By: Himanshu

The marginal farmer is today pitted against the hegemony of the state and its collaborator—the private developer, even as the developing economy fails to provide alternative livelihoods to those in search of non-farm employment.

Pauperised by Development

By: Uma Dey Sarkar

Tribes are marginalised to make way for the well-being of the economically and politically stronger. However, the neo-liberal regime has ensured that these communities are pushed into near obliteration as their livelihoods are sacrificed for the ‘national interest’.

Land and the Position of Women

By: Saraswati Raju

The position of women in north and south India is inherently linked to the terrain. Marriage rituals provide a clue to the demands made on the land articulated through, societal norms.

Wetlands Grabbed

By: Rina Mukherji and Amar Naayak

Notwithstanding existing legislation enacted by the West Bengal government to protect wetlands and water-bodies, wetlands in the State continue to be grabbed by realtors and industry.

Turbines of Trouble: A Question of Scale and Land

By: Siddhartha Dabhi and Steffen Böhm

Wind energy is widely celebrated as green energy. However, wind farms can have far reaching environmental and social consequences.

A Career in Land Management

By: Saraswati Raju

Careers options related to land use, planning and development are enormous. Although a science background may be required in most, there are several courses that do not demand such a background. CEPT University, Ahmedabad; and School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi are among those that accept students from a wide variety of backgrounds.

India’s Smart Cities

By: Amrapali Mukherjee and Anuradha Banerjee

The concept of smart cities is gaining ground with the government’s resolve to set up 100 new smart cities all over the country. To be smart, each such city should be able to deliver basic and infrastructure services quickly and efficiently, while providing safety and security to its residents.

In brief

Editor's Note

If we were to believe that land drives livelihoods, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (Land Act 2013) would be pivotal to our existence. This new Land Act 2013, has put into perspective historical injustices and several art

Guest Editor's Note

One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward: With increasing urbanisation, mining, industrialisation and development of infrastructure such as roads, multipurpose river valley projects, airports and ‘special economic zones’, agricultural and forested areas among others are continuously being acquired b

Vol no. 15 Issue No. 88

Articles...

BACKGROUNDER

Land Acquisition Policy in India

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency LARR Act introduced a mandatory social impact assessment to correct the historical injustices. The ordinance by the current government overturns this cl

By: Staff Reporter

COVER STORY

Land and Livelihood: Debating the Land Acquisition Law

The New Land Act of 2013 was meant to remove the historic injustice perpetrated on land owners and sought to incorporate those dependent on agricultural land for livelihood. However, proposed amendmen

By: Chinmoyee Mallik

LAND PERSPECTIVES

Land Acquisition and Urbanisation

Lessons learnt from large scale acquisition of land for planned development of Delhi under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 have gone on to frame the new Land Acquisition Act of 2013. Yet, some major

By: Vijai Singh

LAND PERSPECTIVES

Agricultural Land use Changes in India

Agricultural land converted to non-agricultural uses is often understood as ‘development’. While high growth, rich states have managed to hold on, the low growth poorer states have lost significan

By: Sucharita Sen

LAND PERSPECTIVES

Do Bigha Zameen: Dispossessing the Farmer

The marginal farmer is today pitted against the hegemony of the state and its collaborator—the private developer, even as the developing economy fails to provide alternative livelihoods to those in

By: Himanshu

Term Power

What is ...

Is considered involuntary when affected individuals or communities do not have the right to refuse land acquisition that results in displacement. Resettlement refers both to physical displacement (relocation or loss of shelter) and to economic displacement (loss of assets or access to assets that leads to loss of income sources or means of livelihood).

Displaced persons may be classified as persons: (i) who have formal legal rights to the land (including customary and traditional rights recognised under national laws); (ii) who do not have formal legal rights to land at the time of the census, but who have a claim to land that is recognised or recognisable under the national laws; or (iii) who have no recognisable legal right or claim to the land they occupy. The census establishes the status of the displaced persons. Persons moving into the project location after the cut off date such as opportunistic squatters and recently arrived economic migrants are not entitled to compensation or other assistance.

When displacement cannot be avoided, the State or the private party will offer displaced persons and communities’ compensation for loss of assets at full replacement cost and other assistance to help them improve or at least restore their standards of living or livelihoods.

Land acquisition for the project may result in the physical displacement of people as well as their economic displacement. As a result, requirements for both physical displacement and economic displacement may apply.

One of the most debatable issues under the Land acquisition Act 1894 is interpretation of ‘public purpose’ around which disputes concerning acquisition revolve. Private companies acquire land for infrastructure, power, residential or such similar projects and are challenged on the ground that land is being taken over for private purposes or by a private entity. The comprehensive amendment to the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 wherein it has redefined 'public purpose' to now include private hospitals and institutions. The government, as per the recently promulgated 2014 ordinance has done away with the time limit of five years to start construction of work on the acquired land, enabling public/private players to sit on the acquired land.

The process of taking legal action in land related dispute is litigation and the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 has made the process more transparent whereby farmers have more say as compared to industrialists or the government.

Designated areas in countries that possess special economic regulations that are different from other areas in the same country. These regulations tend to contain measures that are conducive to foreign direct investment. Conducting business in a SEZ usually means that a company will receive tax incentives and the opportunity to pay lower tariffs.

Mass displacement may lead to impoverishment. The extraction of land from a community or group and limited commitments of compensation which do not account for the problems both economic and social, leads to regressive roads to poverty. Communities may thus be forced to change their professions, or may find themselves in hostile environments.

The Land Act 2013 makes it mandatory for obtaining consent of atleast 80 per cent project affected families in case of acquisition for private companies and consent of 70 per cent of project affected families in case of acquisition for public private partnership projects which alludes to community usage for commonly owned land or common property. Provisions for compensation and rehabilitation and resettlement has been made for landowners and landless who rely on common property, whose livelihood is likely to be affected by the said acquisition.

Named 'The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act', 2013, it replaces the Land Acquisition Act 1984. The objectives of the new Act is fair compensation, resettlement and rehabilitation of those affected, adequate safeguards and complete transparency in the process of land acquisition.

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