Top corporate house Essar "acquires" land in a midnight swoop: "Result" of Central confusion on land acquisition law

By A Representative
Taking advantage of the utter confusion prevailing at the top policy level on the Land Acquisition Act (LAA), 2013, for which an amendment ordinance was floated for the third time by the Government of India May this year, top industrial house, Essar Power, is alleged to have "forcibly" acquired land it had sought for a coal corridor it is constructing from a nearby jetty to the 1,200 MW power plant at Salaya, Saurashtra region of Gujarat.
The acquisition took place, say sources, following Essar Power receiving official nod for acquiring the land without invoking the consent clause or going in for social impact assessment, which were the most important provisions of the LAA, 2013. The NDA government in Delhi is seeking to remove these provisions through its controversial ordinance.
In a mid-night swoop, say sources, the company “forcibly” took possession of farmers’ and common grazing land in Mota Maanda, Parodia and other nearby villages of Khambalia taluka of Devbhoomi Dwarka district of Saurashtra region. The operation took place between the night of June 30 and July 1. It took place with the help of local armed cops under the direct supervision of the district superintendent of police, the district collector.
Meanwhile, the midnight operation has heated up the political atmosphere, with Congress’ national spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil saying that this suggests the government and the top corporate house are "hand-in-glow", caring little for farmers’ rights. Local MLAs from Jamnagar and Dwarka Dharmendrasinh (Hakuba) Jadeja, Merambhai Ahir and Raghavjibhai Patel are up in arms, supporting farmers whose land has been lost.
The company it is said, had sought 17,69,986 square metres of land for building the corridor. When the company floated the proposal to acquire land, the price it was officially asked to pay for the land was very low, about the same as the government-assessed rate, jantri, which is generally two or three times lower than the market rate. The district collector took the final decision to allow land acquisition for Essar.

Gohil

Objecting to this, Gohil said, “When Essar proposed the coal corridor, the LAA came into force. Yet, ignoring the LAA’s provisions, which would require consent and social impact assessment, as also four times the amount of the price of the land, and taking advantage of confusion on it at the highest level in Delhi, the state government announced the award”.
“Fertile land around the common grazing land was forcibly taken away from farmers by applying the already abrogated 1984 land acquisition law. The matter is currently pending before the Gujarat High Court, which has ordered a stay on government action on the ground that the land cannot be acquired without consent of concerned farmer”, Gohil said.
In the meantime, fear has come to stalk farmers that Essar Power, which wants to build the corridor to transport coal from a nearby jetty, would additionally pollute the farmlands in the vicinity, with the government failing to ensure an assessment of the destruction caused to the environment.
Putting up a list of demands, Gohil, who is former Opposition leader, said, the Gujarat government must act against the officials who worked in favour of the corporate house by acquiring land under the already dropped colonial era land acquisition law.

“All common grazing land which Essar has taken should be returned to the farmers, and no land should be taken from the farmers without their consent”, he added in a statement.

Comments

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.

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857 By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

Spirit of leadership vs bondage: Of empowered chairman of 100-acre social forestry coop

By Gagan Sethi* This is about Khoda Sava, a young Dalit belonging to the Vankar sub-caste, who worked as a bonded labourer in a village near Vadgam in Banskantha district of North Gujarat. The year was 1982. Khoda had taken a loan of Rs 7,000 from the village sarpanch, a powerful landlord doing money-lending as his side business. Khoda, who had taken the loan for marriage, was landless. Normally, villagers would mortgage their land if they took loan from the sarpanch. But Khoda had no land. He had no option but to enter into a bondage agreement with the sarpanch in order to repay the loan. Working in bondage on the sarpanch’s field meant that he would be paid Rs 1,200 per annum, from which his loan amount with interest would be deducted. He was also obliged not to leave the sarpanch’s field and work as daily wager somewhere else. At the same time, Khoda was offered meal once a day, and his wife job as agricultural worker on a “priority basis”. That year, I was working as secretary...

Fate of Yamuna floodplain still hangs in "balance" despite National Green Tribunal rap on Sri Sri event

By Ashok Shrimali* While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reportedly pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on the banks of Yamuna, the chief petitioners against the high-profile event Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has declared, the “fate of the floodplain still hangs in balance.”

Two more "aadhaar-linked" Jharkhand deaths: 17 die of starvation since Sept 2017

Kaleshwar's sons Santosh and Mantosh Counterview Desk A fact-finding team of the Right to Feed Campaign, pointing towards the death of two more persons due to starvation in Jharkhand, has said that this has happened because of the absence of aadhaar, leading to “persistent lack of food at home and unavailability of any means of earning.” It has disputed the state government claims that these deaths are due to reasons other than starvation, adding, the authorities have “done nothing” to reduce the alarming state of food insecurity in the state.

Proposed Modi yatra from Jharkhand an 'insult' of Adivasi hero Birsa Munda: JMM

Counterview Desk The civil rights network, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JMM), which claims to have 30 grassroots groups under its wings, has decided to launch Save Democracy campaign to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to be launched on November 15 from the village of legendary 19th century tribal independence leader Birsa Munda from Ulihatu (Khunti district).

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Ground reality: Israel would a remain Jewish state, attempt to overthrow it will be futile

By NS Venkataraman* Now that truce has been arrived at between Israel and Hamas for a period of four days and with release of a few hostages from both sides, there is hope that truce would be further extended and the intensity of war would become significantly less. This likely “truce period” gives an opportunity for the sworn supporters and bitter opponents of Hamas as well as Israel and the observers around the world to introspect on the happenings and whether this war could have been avoided. There is prolonged debate for the last several decades as to whom the present region that has been provided to Jews after the World War II belong. View of some people is that Jews have been occupants earlier and therefore, the region should belong to Jews only. However, Christians and those belonging to Islam have also lived in this regions for long period. While Christians make no claim, the dispute is between Jews and those who claim themselves to be Palestinians. In any case...

Counterview

Search This Blog