Counterview, 27 Dec 2014: The apex body of tens of people’s organizations across India, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has termed the Narendra Modi government’s reported decision to come up with an amendment to water down the Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Transparency in Land Acquisition Act, 2013 in the form of an ordinance as nothing but an effort push an “anti-poor corporate agenda”. NAPM is led by top social activist Medha Patkar.
Regretting that the new Act “has not been fully implemented in earnest by either state governments, or the Central government,”, the NAPM has admitted, “A climate has been created by corporate houses and Modi Sarkaar that the new land Act is an impediment to the developmental needs of the country.”
Taking advantage of the situation, the NAPM has suggested, the Prime Minister’s Office believes that it cannot “wait”, and “it means business and for that they need to bring in Ordinances on crucial issues. It is on expected lines. Since the time NDA government has come to power, on various occasions its ministers Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal and others have advocated for bringing amendments to the new Act.”
Calling it an “Ambani-Adani sarkaar – a company sarkaar, which is out to sell the democratic rights of the people and democratic traditions of law making in Parliament in the name of business”, the statement said, “We all know that the new Act has been framed after consulting all the stakeholders and over a period of seven years after going through two parliamentary standing committees (2007 and 2009) headed by senior BJP leaders Kalyan Singh and Sumitra Mahajan.”
“Modi has displayed least patience for the parliamentary traditions and often remained silent on key issues concerning the nation and blamed opposition for non-functioning of Parliament”, the statement read, adding, “Matters concerning the lives of millions of the farmers in this country can’t and shouldn’t be decided by mere Ordinance. These are matters of grave importance and need thorough debate and discussion in this democracy.”
Saying that all this is happening in the same way as in Gujarat, the statement said, “In 2009, the Gujarat government under Modi had brought in an Ordinance to enact Special Investment Region Act, 2009. The Gujarat Special Investment Region Act was directly to facilitate large scale land acquisitions by developing 13 SIRs and four industrial areas centered on manufacturing.”
Saying that the 2013 land Act was enacted in “response to the Colonial Land Acquisition Act, 1894 which resulted in massive forcible land acquisition without any resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R), drastically affecting not only people who lose their land, but also those who lose their livelihood”, the NAPM said, “These forced land acquisitions led to massive protests in places like Nandigram, Singur, Kalinganagar, Kakrapalli, and Bhatta Parsaul, where many people died.”
It added, “For years, Narmada Bachao Andolan and Niyamgiri Suraksha Parishad led anti-SEZ protests in Raigarh and Jhajhar demanding a repeal of the colonial Act and enactment of a new development planning act marking people’s participation and provisions for livelihood based R&R. Finally, we have an Act, passed by last Parliament, and rules for which have been notified by NDA government in August 2014.”
The statement said, “As per the Act, the government was to bring a Notification in the Parliament in year 2014 to extend the provisions of the compensation and R&R to the people affected by land acquisition carried through the 13 central Acts, as mentioned in Fourth Schedule. Rather than doing so, it is also proposing to make amendments to two of the key provisions, ‘consent’ and ‘Social Impact Assessment’ of the new Act. These two provisions are central to addressing the issue of ‘forced land acquisition’ and ‘resulting impoverishment” to the communities.”
The statement said, “As per the Act, the government was to bring a Notification in the Parliament in year 2014 to extend the provisions of the compensation and R&R to the people affected by land acquisition carried through the 13 central Acts, as mentioned in Fourth Schedule. Rather than doing so, it is also proposing to make amendments to two of the key provisions, ‘consent’ and ‘Social Impact Assessment’ of the new Act. These two provisions are central to addressing the issue of ‘forced land acquisition’ and ‘resulting impoverishment” to the communities.”
Declaring that “any move to amend the new Act will be opposed by people’s movements”, the NAPM said, “20,000 people gathered on December 2 on the streets of Delhi, and we will mobilise against any forcible land acquisitions and attempts at making changes to the new act all over the country. We urge all the members of the opposition parties to intervene not let Modi Sarkaar get away with this anti people move.”
Web: http://www.counterview.net/2014/12/modi-govt-has-created-climate-to-amend.html