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 by both the government and private agencies. However, despite compensation and resettlement (poor and inadequate as they may be) such acquisitions have left millions of people homeless and jobless. Conflicts between people and the state has resulted in large amounts of land being locked up in litigation, leaving both people and industry high and dry. While industry is of the view that huge amount of capital is rendered unproductive adversely impacting the nation’s economic growth; for the project-based displaced persons it has been the question of livelihood and survival. In the absence of any comprehensive policy related to land acquisition there is no doubt that the extent of destitution is of critical significance. With a view to quell simmering unrest the previous government drew a new act replacing the one that had existed for over 120 years or so, referred to as Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. Though deficient in several ways, the Act significantly provided for addressing the concerns of land dependent communities in just and fair manner.. However with the new amendments introduced by the current government using the ordinance route, there are strong apprehensions that the progressive features of the 2013 Act have been taken away. While using the logic of the ‘eminent domain’ the government has sided with the global and local capital and is no different from that which the British had created. It appears that it is not so much a conflict between the interest of the capital and that of the people but between the rights of the people as citizens of this country and the interests of a handful of articulate and powerful economic and political classes. Are people just population or citizens?