India's opposition streams show rare unity, speak out against the Centre's "anti-people" land ordinance

Sharad Yadav

By A Representative
In a rare occurrence, the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), the apex body of tens of rights organizations, succeeded in bringing together different opposition streams in Delhi. The event was a discussion on the land ordinance promulgated by the NDA government, and how it has already begun to impact one of the most important projects being implemented – of having a Greenfield capital for Andhra Pradesh following bifurcation of the state and formation of Telangana. The NAPM had called for discussion those parties which disagree with the Government of India move.
Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav, speaking up on the occasion, said, the land ordinance had provided “the right ammunition for people and parties to come together against this government with authoritarian tendencies”. Speaking in a similar tone, D Raja, Rajya Sabha MP, CPI, said “authoritarianism doesn't have a place in this country”, promising Left support to “other opposition parties” to mobilise people against the NDA to give it a “fitting reply”. Congress’ Jairam Ramesh and Aam Admi Party’s Yogendra Yadav sent in their messages offering support for a united move against the ordinance.
MG Devasahayam, retired IAS official who headed the Fact Finding Team constituted by the NAPM, said the project would prove to be a “windfall” for the real estate developers. Already, a Singapore firm, he pointed out, has been given complete rights. According to him, “The Capital Sitting Committee had specified least possible dislocation to existing agricultural practices, and it did not favour a Greenfield capital, yet this was completely “disregarded”.
“Guntur district near Vijaywada, has a thriving agricultural economy of Rs 1,000 crore and 120 different crop varieties. The region has 85 percent small and marginal farmers and also has women entrepreneurs who earn Rs.200-700 per day. The planned capital will take 30,000 acres of multi-crop farmland from 29 villages affecting two lakh-plus population”, Devasahayam said, adding, “The land pooling scheme, meant to be voluntary, is being used to forcefully acquire land from farmers.”
C Ramachandraiah, Leader of Opposition, Andhra Pradesh legislative council, said that the MoU with Singapore was done “without any knowledge to chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s own cabinet colleagues, not to talk of MLAs and MLCs”, adding, “Naidu is following exactly the same style of functioning as Narendra Modi is following at the Centre.”
Ramakrishna Raju, NAPM convener, who visited the area along with K Babu Rao, senior scientist, said, “Farmers and workers do not want to give land but are being coerced into doing so. More than 1,000 police personnel have been deployed in the region and people are being forced to sign away their land. Minimal cash compensation is being provided. The implicit reasoning behind the large amount of land needed is to convert it into real estate will benefit only the developers.”
Speaking on the ordinance, KB Saxena, former Secretary to the Government of India, and Usha Ramanathan, legal researcher, said that it has “taken us back to the 1894 land acquisition Act, with “no system of checks and balances”. He added, “The ordinance has diluted a range of consent provisions as well as opened up the field for all forms of private and public private partnerships. It has also taken out the provision for social impact assessment”.
Ritwick Dutta, environmental lawyer said that the ordinance needs to be seen in conjunction with changes and dilutions in the environmental regulations as suggested by the TS Subramanian Committee. “These dilutions will have far reaching implications since they exempt almost every project from the provisions of the public hearing and consent in the name of national and strategic importance”, he said. Others who spoke included Swami Agnivesh and senior environmentalist Vandana Shiva.

NAPM Statement

An NAPM statement said, “An immediate fallout of the ordinance is the large-scale land grab proposed in the name of development of a new Greenfield capital city of Andhra Pradesh near Vijayawada in Guntur District.” It added, “Chandigarh, which is the most acclaimed Greenfield capital city only, acquired less than 9000 acres in Phase 1, and less than 6000 acres in Phase 2. This low-rise-low-density city has a population of just over one million six decades after the commencement of its development.”
Wondering what is the need for acquiring 52,000 acres, which can go up to 1 lakh acres, NAPM said, “The impression has gathered that the ‘massive capital city’ of Andhra Pradesh and the Central ordinance give out one clear message – that people's consent and rights will not be respected in order to facilitate real estate development and profit for corporate houses.”

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Bihar’s land at ₹1 per acre for Adani sparks outrage, NAPM calls it crony capitalism

By A Representative The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has strongly condemned the Bihar government’s decision to lease 1,050 acres of land in Pirpainti, Bhagalpur district, to Adani Power for a 2,400 MW coal-based thermal power project.

Counterview

Search This Blog