"Benefits" of land ordinance cited amidst Gujarat farmer leaders' coordinated plan for anti-land acquisition struggle

A group of Gujarat farmers’ organizations have formed a new farmers’ coordination committee, Sanyukt Khedut Sangharsh Samiti, to fight against the Government of India’s controversial land acquisition ordinance, re-promulgated last week, giving a long-drawn-out plan of struggle against the ordinance. The decision to form the Samiti was taken at a Chintan Shibir meeting of various farmers’ organizations in Ahmedabad.

To launch its struggle in May by holding two separate “yatras” – one starting at Dandi in South Gujarat, and the other at Porbandar in Saurashtra – Gujarat Khedut Samaj’s Sabar Rabari said, “The two streams will merge at Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) to hold a huge farmers’ meet against the ordinance.”
To be headed by veteran former Congressman Sanat Mehta, among the organizations which have decided to be part of the Samiti include Gujarat Khedut Samaj, All-India Kisan Sabha and Saurashtra Ladat Samiti. The farmers’ meet at Dholera is likely to be addressed by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare, Rabari suggested.
While it is not known if the Chintan Shibir deliberated on certain pros and cons of the ordinance which is the main point of contention, already, some activists have suggested that it may actually prove to be “blessing in disguise” to the farmers of the Dholera special investment region (SIR), whose land was sought to be taken by taken away by without applying the Gujarat town planning Act, 1976.
The farmers of 22 villages in the south of Ahmedabad were officially told last year that they would have to part 50 per cent of their land for the Dholera SIR’s infrastructure development. Refusing to call it “land acquisition”, the notices to the farmers said they would be paid compensation as per the market rate fixed by the government.
A Gujarat government document, justifying the move, said that the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR, 2013) – which the Government of India has replaced with an ordinance – would not be application in areas where a town planning scheme had been floated.
The document, had said, “Wherever a town planning scheme is finalised, there will not be any land acquisition under any other law.” It had added, “As soon as the town planning scheme is finalised, any land acquisition under LARR, 2013 would be treated as illegal”.
The ordinance which replaces the Act, however, says that the ordinance’s provisions on land acquisition would have precedence over other existing laws for land acquisition. “For all practical purposes, it means that Dholera farmers’ 50 per cent land cannot now be taken away under the Gujarat town planning Act by paying them government-decided market rate”, a senior activist said.
“Under the ordinance, they would have to be paid at least four times the market rate as compensation, which the government was refusing to pay to Dholera farmers by citing the Gujarat town planning Act, apart from benefits like resettlement and rehabilitation”, the activist said.
An independent researcher, Kanchi Kohli, says in an analysis of the ordinance that provisions of the LARR Act related to rehabilitation, resettlement as well as provision of infrastructure amenities like roads, drinking water, fair price shops, burial and cremation grounds will now apply to “all enactments listed in the Fourth Schedule of the LARR Act, 2013.”
Kohli adds, “What this implies is that even when land is acquired for coal mining, railways, nuclear power installations, highways etc, in future, it would be acquired under the LARR Act and not the other existing legislations.”

Comments

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A sector under siege? War and real estate: Navigating uncertainty in India's expanding market

I was a little surprised when I received an email alert from a top real estate consultant, Anarock Group , titled "Exploring War’s Effects on Indian Real Estate—When Conflict Meets Concrete," authored by its regional director and head of research, Dr. Prashant Thakur. I had thought that the business would wholeheartedly support what is considered a strong response to the dastardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor.

Search This Blog