Of Land and Livelihoods: The new LARR Act is not a permanent solution to the basic

problem – the commodification of land

Source: Economic and Political Weekly , JANUARY 4, 2014, Vol. 49, No. 1 (JANUARY 4,
2014), pp. 8-9
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/24478444

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 EDITORIALS

Adarsh Impunity
Something rotten in the state of Maharashtra.

Society scandal which first became public in 2010 has in Mumbai out of the reach of most working people, the Adarsh
The Maharashtra
consisted of desperate government's role scandal
attempts at a cover-up, hypocritical in the
led to aAdarsh
massive publicHousing thein political
outcry. The building, south nexus with this lobby has priced affordable housing
gestures to appease public indignation and now a blatant shield- Mumbai, was reportedly planned as a six-storey structure meant
ing of the powerful politicians and bureaucrats indicted by a for war heroes of the Kargil war and their families. However, in
judicial commission. Four former chief ministers (including one its present avatar it has 31 floors with 25 of the society's 103
who is now the union home minister), 12 senior bureaucrats and members ineligible according to the original guidelines and 22
two ministers currently in the state cabinet have been held cases of benami purchases. These include a former speaker of the
responsible by the commission for "blatant violations" that assembly, a former Shiv Sena parliamentarian and minister and the
showed "greed, nepotism and favouritism". One of those indicted, Indian diplomat in the United States, Devyani Khobragade, who
Ashok Chavan, was the chief minister when the scandal broke has been charged with underpaying her domestic help,
and was forced to resign. The entire saga has exposed yet again Before the judicial commission's report, the Public Accounts
the lengths to which the Indian politician-bureaucrat nexus can Committee (pac) had tabled its report on the scandal in the
go to corner housing and plots in prime locations for themselves Lok Sabha pointing out that at every level rules had been bent,
and their privileged circles. More importantly, the state govern- Incidentally, the pac took the army and navy authorities along
ment's rejection of the commission's report illustrates how the with the state government to task on this issue. The Union Min
power elite will go to any length to protect its own. istry of Environment and Forests too had ordered the building
The Adarsh scam is not an isolated example. A similar scandal is demolished for violation of the coastal regulation zone (crz)
the allocation of land at throwaway prices to the Union Parlia- rules. The state government had to be fought at every step
mentary Affairs Minister Rajeev Shukla by the current state govern- through right to information (rti) applications, and public and
ment. In early December 2013, the media reported that an educa- political campaigns before it yielded.
tion society headed by Shukla's wife was allotted a large plot of Despite all the censures, it sat on the judicial commission's
land in 2008 at a prime location in Mumbai for just under Rs 1 lakh, report that was submitted in June 2012. Finally, the Bombay High
The plot's market value runs into crores of rupees and it had been Court's intervention led to the tabling of the report. In the action
earlier reserved for a municipal school and playground. Shukla taken report, the chief minister stated without any sense of irony,
reportedly urged the state government to "reclaim" the land follow- that the second part of the report (indicting the high and mighty)
ing adverse media reports, saying he had been unable to use it. was being rejected "in the public interest"! No explanation was
The Bombay High Court is currently hearing a public interest liti- given. Earlier the governor had refused to sanction prosecution of
gation (pil) about allegations that in many cases Shukla or his Ashok Chavan by the Central Bureau of Investigation, though the
relatives have been allotted flats under the chief minister's dis- legal grounds on which this decision was made remain doubtful,
cretionary quota. These flats are sold way below the market rates The state government's intractability is not surprising. Excep
and are meant for deserving persons from various categories who tions are always made to accommodate the powerful. Yet, the
would otherwise not be able to afford housing at the commercial rhetoric is always about the interests of the poor. If the hypocrisy
rates. The pil names a number of prominent politicians from the of the latter needs illustration, one only has to look at Mumbai's
ruling coalition as beneficiaries of such multiple allotments. development, where every concession has been made to meet
Given the stranglehold that the builder lobby has over Mumbai's the needs of those who already have enough while the numbers
real estate and the growing evidence, as also public belief, that of people without secure housing continues to burgeon.

Of Land and Livelihoods

The new LARRAct is not a permanent solution to the basic problem - the commodification of land.

struggles of the victims of capitalist development for the and has just completed the three-month period within which it
It has takenAct66(laa)years
Land Acquisition of 1894 to beafter
repealed, Independence anddoes thismany
pending must be notified. But mark theheroic September
end of the colonial legacy 2013, received the president's assent soon thereafter,
notification of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency as far as land acquisition under the principles of "eminent domain"
in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 and "public purpose" is concerned? What are the rights that the
(the larr Act) in the Gazette of India on 1 January 2014. The people have won as a result of their long and bitter struggles
larr Act was passed by Parliament in the monsoon session in over land and livelihoods, from the times of the Hirakud Dam

8 January 4, 2014 vol XLix no 1 GEES Economic & Political weekly

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 EDITORIALS

project in the 1950s to those of the posco steel project in the and resettlement (r&r) will apply later by no
first decade of the 21st century? What still remains to be won in Thus the colonial legacy of compulsory acq
the coming post-LARR struggles over land in the years to come? ue to apply in these 13 important areas, exc
What would potentially bring the highest rate of return on tion and r&r will be better,
capital is the underlying basis for dispossession of people from Compensation for land losers and r&r of the
their lands, and also the lands required by the State to fulfil its role as per the larr is indeed much better than bef
as the instrument of the dominant classes. With the ascendency of value of the land will, as before, be determ
capital, land had to be liberated from the various obstructions to its registered sale deeds in the area, but the
most profitable use. So customary rights had to be extinguished, against 30% as per the laa) of such market v
for property was henceforth only to be "private", and this meant India, the market value is to be multiplied by a
that other individuals and the community were to be excluded. The 1.00 and 2.00 depending on the distance of t
laa of 1894 was the culmination of a series of laws related to land urban area. The compensation thus takes ac
acquisition from 1824 onwards, the year 1863 making the first that the sale deeds do understate the market v
incorporation of the provision for government to acquire land on save on stamp duty. The r&r provisions are
behalf of the private sector, ostensibly for "public purpose", the that they are predominantly cash-based, and
latter, itself quite all encompassing. Continued in independent India alternative livelihood is not mandatory,
under Article 372 of the Constitution, which smoothed the incor- At a press conference in Mumbai on 29 Sep
poration of colonial era laws, the Act was amended in 1962 to give after the larr got the president's assent, the
greater powers to the State to characterise a whole range of infra- lopment Minister Jairam Ramesh was reported
structural and industrial projects as serving the "public purpose", under the laa around 30-40 million tribal per
and in 1984 to make it even easier to acquire land for private India had been displaced and "this had paved the
companies. Any activity of the State was now deemed to serve the ing the Maoist ideology in these regions". In thi
"public purpose", as also almost any activity of private companies. to argue that "the problem of Naxal menace i
The 2013 larr, in Section 2(1), virtually extends this legacy land acquisition law". If this is indeed the case, t
of "public purpose" as far as the public sector and infrastructure led by the Maoists, as also the resistance of the p
is concerned, including industrial corridors, national investment in movements such as the ones led by the Bhumi
and manufacturing zones, and tourism too within its realm. For Committee in Nandigram, the Krishi Jomi Ba
public-private partnerships (ppp), where the ownership of land Singur, the Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti in Lanjig
vests with the government and for private companies as well, the posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti in Jag
the "public purpose" is as defined in Section 2(1), except that they the mining areas of Keonjhar and Sundergarh
have to seek prior consent, in the case of ppp, from at least 70% Narmada Bachao Andolan, all have to be cred
of the affected families, and in the case of private companies, made a significant contribution to forcing
from at least 80% of the same. These latter provisions may be seen enact the progressive sections in the larr.
as rights won by the resistance movements of the victims of the The political movements of the disposse
various projects in independent India. But, Section 105(1) states deprived of their livelihoods and their habitat
that the provisions of the larr will not apply to a set of 13 enact- go on, for the gains they have made can never rem
ments such as the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, the Land Acquisition as power remains in the hands of capital. Ultimat
(Mines) Act, 1885, the National Highways Act, 1956, the Petroleum on the realisation of the socialist project. In
and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Act, "counter-movement" of society against the d
1962, the Coal Bearing Areas Acquisition and Development Act, market mechanism has to go on to bring in pl
1957, the Electricity Act, 2003, and the Railways Act, 1989, except protection to ensure the habitability of the natur
that the provisions related to compensation and rehabilitation the security of the people in their sociocultura

FROM 50 YEARS AGO

had assumed, but it had been completely im- primarily to protect the public from the illicit
pervious so long to what was happening all distiller, the bootlegger and the trafficker....
âhc fccmomic îDeeMg
around, kept its eyes tightly shut and refused ... Experience all the world over has proved
3 Journal ol Current economic anfc political affairs
to listen to the voice of reason. Shri Vasantrao over and over again that propaganda and persua
VOL XVI, NO 1, JANUARY 4, 1964 Naik has shown outstanding political cour- sion are futile in stopping or even checking the
age in deciding to undo the accumulated kind of drinking which creates a social problem,
EDITORIALS
evils of a policy which was breaking down The only way to keep people away from un
under the pressure of the forces of corrup- wholesome drinking is to make their lives a little
Retreat from Prohibition
tion that it had released. The Chief Minister more cheerful. To achieve that objective in the
What is surprising is not that Maharashtra
has acted not a moment too soon. case of the working class and the poorer sections
should be the first State to go back on Prohibi... It is not on the moral question of the of the community is difficult indeed. Neverthe
tion but that it should have persisted in wrong
right of the people to drink if they want to less, it is a much more sensible and worthwhile
doing for so many years in keeping up Prohi
that Maharashtra has changed its stand. The objective to pursue than the wholesale en
bition. None knew better than the Governmentrelaxations now announced which are to forcement of prohibition which is not merely
of the State what a disastrous form prohibition
come into force from April 1, are intended more difficult but absolutely unattainable.

Economie & Political weekly nTTTl January 4, 2014 vol xlix no 1

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