land acquisition/sez & displacement â 2011 - Indian Social Institute

order. Each kit contains a kitchen set, two blankets, two tarpaulins, a large jerry can and cleaning andbathing soap. Deputy Head of Regional Delegation, ICRC, New Delhi, Yahia Alibi and chairman, IndianRed Cross Society, Assam State Branch, Renuka Devi Barkataki were present during the first phase ofthe relief distribution programme launched at the Kukurkata Relief Camp. The clashes caused thedisplacement of about 50,000 civilians and claimed 12 lives. In response to the violence, the Assam andMeghalaya branches of the Indian Red Cross Society started distributing emergency goods acquired bythe ICRC, said a release issued by Chandan Chutia of the Assam Branch of the Indian Red Cross. Focuson 2000 families “Our aid is focused on 10,000 people — approximately 2,000 families — who lost alltheir belongings, including their homes, in Assam and Meghalaya. Displaced communities found shelterin transitory makeshift camps, where they are now facing a difficult situation due to lack of suitablefacilities and poor hygiene conditions,” said Ms. Barkataki in her inaugural speech. She said the AssamState Branch of the Indian Red Cross Society made an assessment immediately after the incident andfound that the affected people were facing the dearth of warm clothes, utensils and some other basicneeds. ‘Happy to help' “We feel very happy to help the people here and we have been working for peoplelike you in various countries of the world,” said Yahia Alibi, Deputy Head of the Regional Delegation,ICRC, New Delhi, He also mentioned that the ICRC worked around the world on an impartial basis toprotect and assisted people adversely affected by armed conflicts, internal disturbances and othersituations of violence. The ICRC has had a permanent presence in India since 1982. (Hindu, 07/02/2011)2 lakh people in Delhi displaced due to CWG: reportAt least two lakh people were "forcibly" evicted from their dwellings in the Capital in the past six years forinfrastructural development for the Commonwealth Games without any rehabilation, a study by an NGOclaimed today. According to the report "Planned Dispossession: Forced Evictions and the 2010Commonwealth Games", forced evictions were carried out across 19 sites in Delhi for the sporting event."Based on field works and research, we found out that at least two lakh people in Delhi have been forciblyevicted as a result of CWG. The city, however, witnessed many more demolitions and evictions in the runupto the Games," the study prepared by Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) said. At none of thesites had people been consulted or included in decision-making processes regarding the demolition oftheir homes, the report said, alleging that authorities also did not conduct any public hearing about theproposed evictions. "The CWG-related evictions were carried out in extreme weather conditions, duringfestivals and prior to school examinations. Authorities demolished many homes across the city whenresidents were not present; several demolitions took place when people were at work or travelling out ofthe city," the report alleged. Releasing the report, former Delhi High Court Chief Justice A P Shah saidthat the right to shelter and livelihood has even been recognised by the apex court in its judgement. "Intotal violation of all human rights recognised by Supreme court and international laws, these slumdwellers were removed," he said. "Several poor people were without a prior notice forcefully evicted fromtheir so-called slums, without being rehabilitated," said Millon Kothari, the Executive Director of NGOHousing and Land rights Network. Areas of Gol Dak Khana, Lodhi colony, Pusa road and Chanakyapuriare among the 19 sites listed in the report where "forcible demolition" was undertaken by authorities.Among them, the report claimed, eight slums were demolished between January 9 to January 13, 2009during winter season thereby violating the provision of UN Guidelines about appropriate timings ofeviction. The report named Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Lt Governor Tejender Khanna amongother government officials accountable for flouting the norms for procedural eviction and violating thehuman rights of people. "State agencies have not only taken away the poor people's rights but also theirdignity in a brutal manner. It is unfortunate that no action against the responsible government officials hasbeen taken yet," Justice Shah said. (Deccan herald, 02/08/2010)Andhra Pradesh HC refuses to quash sedition case against tribalHYDERABAD: Justice Samudrala Govinda Rajulu of AP high court on Monday refused to quash the caseof sedition registered against a Koya tribal fighting against the construction of Polavaram irrigationproject. Polavaram Police of West Godavari district registered a crime case against Savalam Benerji, aKoya tribal and others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for their alleged activity in trying tostall the Polavaram project. The tribals of this area had been complaining that the statutory procedure hasnot been followed, the required permissions have not been fully obtained and rehabilitation of the tribals,who are the residents of Protected Schedule Tribal Area, has not been finalized. In the process therewere agitations against the project. The police in their case against the agitators have included a charge

under 124-A of the IPC pertaining to sedition. The petitioner came to the High Court and challenged theaction of the authorities in implicating him just because they were demanding appropriate rehabilitation.Initially, a HC judge granted interim stay but when the case came up for final hearing on Monday, JusticeGovinda Rajulu dismissed the case and gave liberty to the petitioner to approach the trial court seeking adischarge from the case. The judge was not inclined to accept the arguments of the petitioner that in anearlier case the High Court had quashed the cases against other tribals in similar offences. This judgmentassumes significance in the light of agitation by tribals all over the country seeking rehabilitationpackages, when they were being displaced from their habitat. Any person charged with sedition can bepunished with imprisonment for life. (TOI, 22/02/2011)600 applications from PoK crossed youth for rehabilitationJAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir government has received over 600 applications for a rehabilitationpolicy from relatives and parents of Kashmiri militants in Pakistan occupied Kashmir who want to return."We have received and accepted 600 applications (from the relations of youth aspiring to return back toJammu and Kashmir from PoK). They are being verified," chief minister Omar Abdullah said. "I hope theday is not far when we will approve these 600 applications for the return and rehabilitation of youth goneacross," Omar said, adding that those, who had gone across for arms training to PoK will return withoutguns but along with wives and children to live a life of honour and dignity. The applications have beenfiled with Police chiefs of various districts of Jammu and Kashmir during the past 2 months. In theapplications, it has been claimed by parents and relatives that the youths are ready to return home. Thestate government has formally announced the rehabilitation policy on November 23 last year. The policyhas been launched to facilitate the return of ex-militants who belong to Jammu and Kashmir and hadcrossed over to PoK for arms and explosive training but had later given up and are willing to return to thestate. The policy states that those who have gone to PoK or Pakistan between January 1 1989 andDecember 31 2009 and their dependents will be eligible for consideration under the policy. Theapplications would be scrutinised by District SPs and then forwarded to CID, which will prepare a dossierand give it to the home department which will take a final call on whether the person can be permitted toreturn, the policy states. The ultras would be allowed to enter only through Wagah Border in Punjab andSalamabad and Chakan-Da-Bagh LoC points in Jammu and Kashmir, it said. The returnees and theirfamilies would be lodged for a period of three months at counselling centres. "The returnees shall not beentitled to any special benefits or privileges available in the existing surrender and rehabilitation policy,"the policy states. (TOI, 07/03/2011)613 families to be displaced for POSCO project: GovtSeeking cooperation from the local people for establishment of the Rs 52,000 crore POSCO project nearParadip, Orissa government today said only 613 families would be displaced for the mega steel plant.While the number of families facing displacement for POSCO project was initially put at 803, it camedown to 613 after the state government decided not to acquire private land at Dhinkia village, said steelminister Raghunath Mohanty. "As the people of Dhinkia are opposed to the project and unwilling tovacate their land, the government has decided not to acquire land from the village," he said. Withexclusion of private land from Dhinkia village, number of families to be displaced dropped from 803 to613, he said adding 190 families would benefit from the decision. POSCO project which initially required4004 acre land, would now be set up over 3719.22 acre of land. "The South Korean steel major has alsoaccepted the state government's decision of excluding Dhinkia village from its original plan," saidPriyabrat Patnaik, nodal officer for POSCO project. Of the 3719.22 acre of land for Posco project, privateland was only 152.69 acre while 3566 acre were government land, the minister said adding he washopeful that the local people would not oppose the project, billed as the biggest foreign direct investmentin the country. Of the 3,566 acre government land, 2,958.79 acre were categorised as forest land and607.74 acre non-forest revenue land. "We need diversification of forest land before handing it over to thecompany for starting work," Mohanty said. On renewal of memorandum of understanding (MoU) withPOSCO-India, the minister said: "We have been processing the file in this matter. IPICOL had alreadyprepared a draft for the renewal of MoU". Sources said the state government was waiting for opinion ofthe law department on inclusion of an additional clause in the new MoU. The state government would askPOSCO to reserve certain amount of jobs for the local youths in its proposed 12 MTPA steel mill, he said.(DNA, 09/03/2011)

Jharkhand Opposition rejects rehabilitation policyThe rehabilitation policy for more than 1 lakh people displaced by an ongoing demolition drive of theJharkhand government was rejected by Opposition parties on Sunday. Jharkhand Vikas Morcha(Prajatantric) chief Babulal Marandi staged a hunger strike on Sunday here demanding that the drive bestopped immediately. He said: “There are no special measures for the non-BPL families. The wholeconcept is misleading. The government has created a differentiation among the displaced.” Two-phasedpackage The government has come up with a provision of two-phased rehabilitation package. In the firstphase of temporary settlement, the affected people will be shifted to makeshift tents where basic facilitieswill be made available. In the second step, the government will construct flats but only for people belowthe poverty line (BPL). The Left and the Congress also rejected the package and extended support to Mr.Marandi. The Left parties have called a dawn-to-dusk Jharkhand shutdown for Monday to protest againstthe anti-encroachment drive and demand the resignation of Chief Minister Arjun Munda. Over 5,000illegal structures have been demolished in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Bokaro and other districts inthe last 45 days on the directives of the Jharkhand High Court. The drive has claimed 13 lives andrendered more than 1.20 lakh people homeless. (Hindu, 02/05/2011)Medha Patkar leads rally, FIR lodged for criminal trespassingA rally-led by social activist Medha Patkar shouting “Jo zameen sarkari hain, woh zameen hamari hain(The Government’s land is our land),” assembled near Ratan Talkiz square on Monday afternoon. Patkarled a protest march of displaced hawkers, vendors and displaced people of Islamnagar from Zila SchoolGround to Ratan Talkiz against the anti-encroachment drive. The renowned social activist was in the cityto condemn the recent firing incidents at Ranchi and Dhanbad, in which five people had died. She said ina democratic setup this was intolerable, where a Government controls the agitation of the citizens with thepower of gun. After Islamnagar, Patkar went to Sahid Maidan at Sector-2 of Heavy EngineeringCorporation where she addressed gathering of over thousand people, who are served eviction notices orhave been displaced in the recent anti-encroachment drives. She addressed the gathering on RatanTalkiz that she will seek investigation into the killing of two persons in police firing at Islamnagar and willlodge a FIR against the police. She was surprised to find that no FIR was lodged for the killings of thepeople during the drive in all over the State. “The Government wants a city which is free ofunderprivileged people and glittering to show case in front of the world,” said Patkar. Meanwhile, Patkarand representatives of civil society and different associations met Chief Secretary SK Chaudhary andsubmitted a memorandum demanding proper rehabilitation of the displaced as soon as possible. An FIRwas also lodged against Patkar, for criminal trespassing in restricted lands at Islamnagar, as she led theprotest of Basti Bachao Sangharsh Samiti on anti-encroachment drives. The FIR was lodged at LowerBazaar police station, as Patkar tried to construct a makeshift house at restricted land of Islamnagar area.“Patkar and others were booked for violation of prohibition orders, criminal trespassing in restricted landand unlawful assembly at Islam Nagar,” said Lower Bazaar police station officer in-charge Ashok Kumar.He added the police demolished the makeshift constructions made at Islamnagar made by Patkar. Whenasked that she had violated the court’s order and an FIR was lodged against her, she replied, “Nofoundation was laid only some makeshift arrangement was made for shelter of poor people at IslamNagar.” “When the HEC needed the people it allowed them to settle in its land and now when it doesn’tneed them, it has asked for eviction,” said Patkar while addressing the gathering in Shahid Maidan. Sheadded that this Government is a show off Government. They want to hide the poverty instead of helpingthe people. She asked the people to protest for their land and fight the inhuman anti-encroachment drivepeacefully. Taking to media, Patkar said, “Court has issued orders under the constitution of the countrybut atrocities of the Government and police is intolerable.” (Pioneer, 03/05/2011)Rehab policy will protect displaced, says MalaiyaWater Resources Minister Jayant Malaiya said that the proposed ideal rehabilitation policy of MadhyaPradesh would safeguard the economic and social interests of the displaced persons. It will be taken careof in the policy that displaced families were provided the facilities in time. Chairman of the sub-committeeMalaiya was addressing a meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee set up to formulate rehabilitation policyat the Mantralaya on Tuesday. Committee member Veterinary Minister Ajay Vishnoi, Public WorksMinister Nagendra Singh and Minister of State for General Administration KL Agrawal attended themeeting. The State Government had set up the sub-committee headed by Water Resources Minister

Jayant Malaiya for preparing new rehabilitation policy. The committee will recommend amendments in themodel rehabilitation policy of the year 2002. The committee also discussed about the points of NationalRehabilitation Policy of the year 2007. The sub-committee was of the opinion that subsidy to therehabilitated persons should be given in cash. After acquisition of land in the rural areas, plot of 500 sqmetres should be given to each displaced family and if the land acquisition is made in the urban areas theplot given should be of the size of 250 sq metres. The committee agreed that as employment subsidy tothe displaced family, an amount of Rs 50,000 should be given and for transportation of household goods,`15,000 should be given. The committee was of the opinion that if a person's land is acquired for settingup industry, a member of the person's family should be given employment in the factory. Provisions arebeing made in the policy for education and employment-oriented training to the children of the displacedpersons. (Pioneer, 04/05/2011)Permanent rehabilitation for 233 disaster-prone villages in offingThe State Government is now planning for permanent rehabilitation of as many as 233 villages across theState, which are prone to natural disasters. Among others, Pithorgarh, Chamoli, Pauri, Tehri andUttarkashi are the most vulnerable to the various kind of natural calamities. Earlier, there were about 100villages, which were identified as highly-vulnerable to natural disaster and considered for rehabilitation.Now the list of such villages has gone up to 233, said Minister for Disaster Management Khajan Daswhile talking to The Pioneer. The respective Governments have not been serious for years aboutsettlement of these villages which are vulnerable from various kind of natural disasters like floods andlandslides. But given increasing cases of natural calamities that the hill State has been bearing with oflate coupled with demands of the affected families now the Government seems to be serious for theirrehabilitation. “The State Government have also urged the Centre to assist in the rehabilitation of suchvulnerable villages,” the Minister said, adding that the State would not be able to carry out such task on itsown. Khajan Das said that the State Government suggested the Centre various steps so that peoplecould be relocated in safer places. However, Khajan Das alleged, there is no positive response from theCentre so far. Several rounds of talks were held between the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister in thisregard. The Prime Minister though assured that a committee would be set up to look into these issues, noprogress is has been made so far, he added. (Pioneer, 05/05/2011)Rugdih, the new address for displacedSailing through all odds, finally the displaced families during the anti-encroachment drive will have theirnew address at Rugdih area behind Uphaar Cinemas in Ratu Road. Many families, who got displacedduring the anti-encroachment drive carried out by the district administration by the orders of JharkhandHigh Court, can now be reached at Rugdih, at Ratu Road, as it would serve a temporary residence for thedislocated people in form of residential make-shifts. After series of talks held in between the politicalbodies, and the immense pressure mounting on the state government, the decision to bring about arehabilitation policy for the displaced during the demolition drive at the spur-of-the-moment, at last istaking its shape. Giving a serious thought over the fate of displaced people during the course of antiencroachmentdrive carried out across the State on the High Court orders; the State Government’sdecision in the Cabinet meeting of April 30, brought a little sigh of relief for the dislocated. Arranging atemporary rehabilitation policy for the people, the State Government had allotted `1 crore for fundingproper development of tents, camps for the displaced. In a bid to rehabilitate the displaced, a committeeof Urban Development Department (UDD), Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC), and Ranchi RegionalDevelopment Authority (RRDA) was formed to identify land and advancement to develop temporaryresiding centers for the deprived, within 10 days of the meeting. “The RMC has identified land at Rugdiharea for the purpose and has been approved by RRDA and UDD. The vacant space of land is of RMCand will be utilized for restoring the poor for the time till there are no arrangements made for thepermanent shelters,” answered RMC CEO Vinay Chaubey. “The process for establishing therehabilitation centre has already begun from Wednesday at the area. Building up of water-proof tents, andproviding them with facilities of electricity, water-supply and bathrooms would be installed soon,” addedChaubey. Informing to issue an advertisement for bringing in the displaced people to reside in theseshelters, Chaubey informed: “We shall be putting up an advertisement in the local media, as soon as thework of constructing a temporary and makeshift shelter-place gets finished within 1-2 days, so as we canrush in such people in a better and comfortable living zone for some time.” As the temporary houses willbe filled up, then RMC will start off locating another land for settling the displaced people, accepted that

the new location shall only be identified when the first gets completely filled-up. Giving his nod over theRugdih site, KK Soan, vice-chairman of RRDA said: “The land has been finalised and the work is goingon for building up temporary shelter for the displaced people, while other sites in location such asMadhukam is also being taken note of.” RMC Mayor Rama Khalkho has also promised of developingbuildings for the displaced families during the demolition drive, which shall be provided to BPL families bythe corporation. (Pioneer, 06/05/2011)Sex workers waiting for rehabilitationDespite the warning of the Supreme Court to the chief secretaries of all the States and union territoriesthat they will have to appear in person if they fail to apprise the court of the steps taken by them torehabilitate sex workers, the Jharkhand Government seems to be in deep sleep. Apparently, most of theGovernment officials concerned with the welfare and rehabilitation of the ‘most vulnerable’ segment ofsociety remained unaware of any such direction. Many of the officials remained tightlipped on the issue.But sources said the Government did not have any such plan except extending support to the JharkhandState AIDS Control Society (JSACS). The JSACS is providing technical support by organising activitiesand workshops for the people living with HIV AIDS including large number of sex workers. “There areprogrammes for the people living with HIV AIDS under JSACS which include training as well as providingjobs to these people,” said JSACS project director Aradhana Patnaik. JSACS have reached through theirtargeted intended programmes to more than 6,968 female sex workers, 21, 568 truck drivers whoregularly visit sex workers and found 11 cases of HIV positive people among them in April 2010 to June2010. “The rehabilitation is very important as far as sex workers are concerned. These are the high riskgroup and they are mostly found in tribal areas. A large number of sex workers are migrant population,”she added. Soma (name changed) a 27-year-old sex worker from Ranchi said, “We face too manyproblems. My landlord and even the police harass us and our children couldn’t get admission in theschools. I came in this profession as there is no other choice to fight poverty.” CINI State coordinator,Suranjeen Prasad said, “Unlike other States where most of the female sex workers choose the professionin compulsion, in Jharkhand they choose this profession to earn easy money as they are affected bypoverty.” The recent programme named “Majboot Bandhan” under CINI aims to support JSACS tostabilise epidemic by introducing “Hot Spot Specific Intervention” among sex workers. (Pioneer,06/05/2011)RMC to set up relief camp for displacedRanchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) will be setting up relief camp on Monday for the displaced whosehouses were demolished by the district administration following anti-encroachment drive. The two reliefcamps sprawling in 5,000 square feet area each; will be set up at Rudihgada under Sukhdeo Nagarpolice station and Edelhatu at Morahabadi. As per the RMC estimation both the areas will have thecapacity for nearly 700 families. RMC CEO Vinay Kumar Choubey said: “We have advertised through themedia to inform the families that these two places have been set up for them.” RMC will not supply anyfood to the families. He added that apart from shelter, RMC will be providing drinking water facility, toiletsand electricity to the family who will come to the relief camps. RMC has appealed to the displaced tocome to these two places and use the facility created for them. Choubey added that if they find thenumber of the families taking shelter over there increases then they will expand the number of camps tomeet the demand of the people. “Although RMC supports the anti-encroachment drive but we cannot beinhumane. There are many poor families including kids and ladies for whom we took this initiative,” saidthe CEO. The State government has decided that poor people especially those under BPL category andwere displaced in the anti-encroachment drive will be given houses each of 250 square feet. The RMClocated, around 600 families displaced families in anti-encroachment drives carried out in different partsof the state capital. RMC will be constructing total of 3,702 flats under Basic Services for Urban Poor(BSUP) scheme in different parts of the State capital. Earlier RMC declared that under the BSUP schemethey will construct 850 flats at Rudhigadha in four acres of land and Madhukam where RMC owns fourand half acres of land. RMC got fund of `111 crore for the BSUP purpose. They will also build around 800houses at Edelhatu near Morahabadi police outpost in eight acres of land. (Pioneer, 09/08/2011)Major sons of dam oustees cannot be given separate compensation: SCNEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday approved the Madhya Pradesh government'srehabiliation and resettlement measures extended to Onkareswar Dam oustees and asked the state to

take measures to vacate stays on projects planned on the Narmada river for public to reap the full benefit.A bench comprising Justices J M Panchal, Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan disposed of cross-appealsfiled by the MP government and the Medha Patkar-led Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and rejected theNGO's demand for giving full and separate relief and rehabilitation benefits to all major sons of damoustees by treating them as separate family units. Wrting the 131-page judgment on behalf of the bench,Justice Chauhan said: "We have been given to understand that on the Narmada river in the state ofMadhya Pradesh, in all 29 major and minor projects are contemplated. Some of them have already beencompleted, but on account of stay order by the court or Authority some projects could not be completed.""It is unfortunate that in spite of the fact that a huge amount has been spent, yet no one is able to reap thefruits of investment. The state should take immediate steps to get the final verdict in such cases or stayvacated and start the project at the earliest," he said. Refusing to disturb the compensatory land allotmentpackage already granted by the state under the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, the bench setaside the Madhya Pradesh High Court orders by which the oustees who earlier received compensationfor their land became entitled to claim additional land. "The oustees who have already accepted cashcompensation plus special rehabilitation grant, cannot claim the land in lieu of land," the Bench said.However, in the event of any complaint, the oustees could approach the grievance redressal authority(GRA) or the high court, it said. For the state, senior advocate PS Patwalia and advocate CD Singh hadsubmitted that the HC could not have granted the demands made by NBA, which were contrary to theR&R scheme. (TOI, 12/05/2011)Medha moots Development Planning Act for “no or minimum displacement”Where, she says, gram sabhas and basti sabhas will decide on rural and urban development respectivelyEven as Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar on Thursday demanded repeal of the LandAcquisition Act, 1984, the All-India Kisan Sabha urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call a specialsession of Parliament to discuss the issue. Ms. Patkar, who was arrested at Parsaul village on Thursdayand later released, said that instead of an amended Act, there should be a comprehensive DevelopmentPlanning Act under which development should only be with the consent of gram sabhas in rural areas andbasti-sabhas in urban areas with “no or minimum displacement.” Following her visit two days ago toBhatta village, she said that because of prohibitory orders in the Bhatta-Parsaul villages, women andchildren were not getting relief. “They were not even able to file FIRs for their missing male familymembers. There should be dialogue with farmers to address issues,” she said. Meanwhile, the KisanSabha's national general secretary, Atul Kumar Anjaan, urged the Centre to direct State governments tostop all further acquisition of land and ensure that the conditions and directions of the Supreme Court onrehabilitation and resettlement of displaced people were implemented. Mr. Anjaan pointed out that thePrime Minister had assured in Parliament that the government would review the Land Acquisition Act,“but no positive step has been taken.” On the same issue, Rashtriya Lok Dal President Ajit Singh, whohas visited the stir-affected villages in Uttar Pradesh twice, met Union Rural Development MinisterVilasrao Deshmukh here and urged him to introduce a farmer-friendly Bill in the coming session ofParliament. The RLD raised the issue of ‘definition of public purpose' in the Land Acquisition Act. “What isthe purpose of acquiring land from the farmers? Are golf courses and commercial complex also a publicpurpose? This needs to addressed.” For private enterprise, the government should not acquire more than10-15 percent of the land for removing hurdles from the completion of the project, he added. Mr. Singhsaid the use of section 17 of the Act (Urgency Clause) should be restricted to matters of national securityand natural disasters. “Also, individual notices must be given at the start of the acquisition process to thefarmers to ensure their awareness and ability to express their reservations, if any, to the concernedauthorities at the preliminary stage. “Farmers should get compensation on potential and present marketvalue for the land acquired and the amended act should ensure that if the purpose for which land wasacquired was not fulfilled after five years, the farmers should have the first right of ownership over land,”he said. Mr. Singh also demanded the setting up of a new ‘Land Acquisition (Disputes Settlement)Authority' at the mandal level, which should be headed by a High Court Judge and have on boardmembers with a background in land acquisition and agriculture. (Hindu, 13/05/2011)NAC's Working Group drafts note on land acquisitionA Working Group (WG) set up by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) has drafted adetailed note on land acquisition and relief and rehabilitation which seeks not only to go beyond thepending government bills on the subject, but recommends that the two be merged into a single National

Development, Acquisition, Displacement and Rehabilitation Act. Interestingly, it rejects the Haryanamodel that Congress leaders only too often hold up as exemplary. Indeed, the note says that some Stategovernment officials with whom the WG held discussions had said that “since land was essential for rapidindustrialisation and urbanisation, the attempt should be to make the oustees partners in growth ratherthan discourage forced acquisition.” In this context, the WG points out that the Haryana policy“discourages only acquisition of residential areas, but not agricultural land,” and adds that since foodsecurity will be a growing concern in the coming decades, policies promoting economic developmentmust be balanced with those encouraging food security, especially by discouraging the acquisition ofarable agricultural land. So, even as land acquisition has taken political centre stage, with Congressgeneral secretary Rahul Gandhi challenging the Mayawati government on the issue, and Union HomeMinister P. Chidambaram only last week promising that a law will be enacted soon, the WG's note willcome up for discussion on May 25 at a meeting of the full NAC. NAC sources told The Hindu that therewas a sense of urgency in the council and it hopes to be able to send a draft law well ahead of themonsoon session of Parliament. The two bills that the WG proposes to merge are the Land Acquisition(Amendment) Bill, 2009 which proposes amendments to the Land Acquisition Act 1894, and theResettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2009 a statutory framework for Rehabilitation and Resettlement(R&R) of persons displaced and affected by any development project. According to the NAC WG draft,the new legislation should be tested on whether it discourages forced displacement, minimises adverseimpacts on people, habitats, environment and bio-diversity, comprehensively defines project affectedpersons/families, provides for a just compensation and rehabilitation package, ensures a humane,participatory and transparent process and provides for effective implementation. However, there isdisagreement among the members of the WG — Harsh Mander, Aruna Roy and NC Saxena — on onemajor issue, which will have to be considered by the full NAC. One view is that “it is appropriate forgovernment to acquire land for private companies” as otherwise, “private companies would exploitunorganised, small and particularly tribal cultivators and pay them a pittance, while depriving them ofbenefits of R&R.” Dr. Saxena therefore feels that “for non-tribal areas, public purpose should be definedto include ‘the provision of land for any other purpose useful to the general public, including land forcompanies, for which at least 70 per cent of the project-affected people have given their written consent.'But for tribal areas, the government should acquire even 100 per cent of the land.” The alternative view is“to explicitly exclude acquisition for a project which has ‘as its primary objective the benefit of a privateinterest'; requiring instead that the project be directly related to the functions of the government,” andbenefit the community as a body. According to this view, even the 1894 Act contained no such provision,and “restrained the eminent domain of the State to projects of public welfare. It would be inappropriate,”the note emphasises, “for democratic India to make this change. For-profit private companies must workwithin the market, and pay enough to land-holders for them to voluntarily sell their land. ” (Hindu,19/05/2011)No integration of land acquisition, rehabilitation Bills: DeshmukhEven as the National Advisory Council accepted the suggestion of some of its members for a compositelegislation on land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement, Union Minister of Rural DevelopmentVilasrao Deshmukh on Wednesday spiked their suggestion and stuck to his decision to frame twoseparate laws during the monsoon session of Parliament. Talking to journalists, Mr. Deshmukhunderscored the difficulties in integrating the two laws, stressing that linking them at the current juncturewould not be proper. The NAC meeting, chaired by Sonia Gandhi, accepted the suggestion for integratingthe two Bills and decided to forward the same to the Rural Development Ministry though Mr. Deshmukhhad shot down the proposal. Rehabilitation and resettlement issues were not just limited to landacquisition and displacement but also a gamut of situations at the national level. The rehabilitation andresettlement provisions were aimed at providing relief to people affected by calamities such asearthquake, floods, and cyclones and other hardships that might befall the population. Mr. Deshmukh,however, said clubbing rehabilitation and resettlement provisions with the land acquisition law could beconsidered in the future. Draft to be finalised Maintaining that the consultation process on the two Billsended with Wednesday's NAC meeting, Mr. Deshmukh said his Ministry would consider its proposals andfinalise the draft and send it to the Law Ministry next week. (Hindu, 26/05/2011)Rehabilitation of victims under PSUs uncertainAmid facing the heat of ruthless anti-encroachment drive and heavy downpour- which cripples the life

the security cordon and march towards the Secretariat. Then they fired teargas shells and resorted tofiring. The agitators, who got scattered, reassembled and indulged in violence, torching three new citybuses of the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) and a police vehicle. More police andparamilitary forces were rushed to the spot. The crowd thinned in the afternoon following a heavydownpour. However, hundreds of protesters led by Mr. Gogoi continued with their protest till evening.Braving the rain, they squatted on the busy Guwahati-Shillong Road, disrupting vehicular traffic. Theprotesters dispersed only after Lower Assam Commissioner Hemanga Sarma assured them that theirdemands would be discussed at a June 28 meeting and no eviction would be carried out till then. Kamrup(Metropolitan) Deputy Commissioner J. Balaji told journalists that a probe into the incident would beordered by the Lower Assam Commissioner as demanded by the agitators. Following the assurance, theKMSS suspended its protest till June 28. Expressing grief over the death of two persons, Chief MinisterTarun Gogoi condemned the violence. He alleged that the agitators took the law into their own hands. “The rally was held on grounds of eviction of encroachers on government land. However, the governmenthas already declared that those who have been residing on the land for more than 15 years will be givenrights over the land ,” he said. (Hindu, 23/06/2011)Gobindpur villagers observe 'Black day' to protest Posco dealA day after the Orissa government halted land acquisition for the controversial Posco project, itsdetractors observed Wednesday as a 'Black Day' to protest the anniversary of the Memorandum ofUnderstanding signed between the state government and the steel giant six years ago. On Tuesday, theJagatsinghpur district administration suspended land acquisition for the 12-million tonne steel plantproject after protests escalated in Gobindpur village with leaders of the Congress, CPI, CPI(M), BJP,NCP, SP and eminent social activists like Swami Agnivesh and Medha Patkar joining villagers. Villagersand activists of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) carried on with their protests on Wednesdaywith the PPSS forming a human barricade, women and children at the forefront, to block the entry ofofficials and police. June 22 is observed as a Black Day every year. Today is a day of mourning for us.The state government may have halted land acquisition, but what are 20 platoons of armed police doingin Dhinkia?” asked Prashant Paikray, spokesperson for Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti. Paikray allegedthat 4 platoons of police and 1 platoon are at neighbouring Noliasahi village and Balitutha awaiting furtherorders to start a crackdown on villagers. Besides, 15 more platoons are waiting at school buildings ofKanaguli, Balia and Balitutha, he said. The support for anti-Posco front seems to be increasing withretired judge of Mumbai High Court B G Kolse Patil joining protestors at Gobindpur. Patil is spearheadingthe agitation against the creation of a Reliance Industries special economic zone at Raigad, Maharashtra.Besides, politicians from the Rashtriya Janata Dal, CPI, CPI(M), All India Forward Block and SamajwadiParty have also joined protests at Gobindpur. CPI deputy general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy, whovisited Gobindpur today, announced his party would observe June 24 as Black Day in the country toprotest forcible land acquisition. Tomorrow, eminent environment activist Vandana Shiva would join theprotest at Gobindpur while Magsaysay awardee Sandeep Pandey would be there on June 24. On July 5,6 and 7, several Gandhian leaders would launch protests before Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik'sresidence protesting the land acquisition. In Bhubaneswar today, Nationalist Congress Party continued tosit on dharna protesting forceful land acquisition for Posco. On the other hand, the district administrationhas started demarcating the boundary for the 12-million tonne project at Polang area under Gadakujangpanchayat. Ground-levelling and tree cutting was going on likewise at Nuagaon and Gadkujang.Meanwhile, the Orissa High Court was likely to hear today two separate writ petitions filed by villagers ofGobindpur and Nuagaon challenging the land acquisition. Nishakar Khatua, Bairagi Charan Nayak,Pramod Bardhan, Debendra Swain, Tushar Kanti Dalei and Nityananda Behera of Govindpur andNuagaon villages had filed the petitions in the High Court. The petitioners had prayed the High Court tostop land acquisition work as a forest Act has been violated. They also alleged the government wasacquiring land for a private limited company like Posco in violation of Land Acquisition Act. (IE,23/06/2011)Equivalent quantum of land for unwilling ownersThe West Bengal government on Monday tabled the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development RulesAct, 2011, which gives the government the option of giving unwilling land owners at the disputed plot atSingur a quantum of land equivalent to what they had lost. The Rules, which were laid in the LegislativeAssembly by State Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee, defines an unwilling owner as someone who owns

a plot of land within the schedule to the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, and whose landwas sought to be acquired and who has not accepted compensation. Transfer of land On the issue oftransferring land to such unwilling owners, the Rules said: “The State government shall, by grant underthe Government Grants Act, 1895 (Act no.15 of 1895), give equivalent quantum of land to unwillingowners who have not accepted the compensation out of the land mentioned in the Schedule to the SingurAct, which may not be the specific plot of land of any unwilling owner, or it may award compensation onthe basis of the decision taken by the High Power Committee.” The Rules, which were notified by theLand Reforms Department of the government, also spelt out the composition of the High PowerCommittee for the purpose of effective implementation of the transfer of land. The committee has 19members and is headed by the Industry Minister. The Law Minister is the vice-chairman. Among themembers are MLAs from Singur and the nearby Haripal. (Hindu, 28/06/2011)Poor rehabilitation measures for calamity-hit victimsMore than 15,000 families are still waiting for permanent rehabilitation as they are living in natural disasterprone areas across the State. These people are living in continuous threat and the Government has donenothing for their rehabilitation. The present dispensation may be serious about their rehabilitation, but forwant of adequate resources it has been able to do anything but commitment over the years. With littlecooperation on part of the Centre on this matter despite the State Government’s repeated requests as thelatter has alleged the preparations for disaster management this year also seem to be insufficient.Whereas in view a large scale damage that the State had to bear with last year due to devastatingmonsoon, the State Government had demanded about `21,000 crore from the Centre but it could manageto get only `500 crore. The fact remains that without the assistance of the Central Government, a StateGovernment can’t do permanent rehabilitation of such a large scale families, said Khajan Das, theMinister for Disaster Management, while talking to The Pioneer. However, the State Government hasalready made another demand for `15,000 crore in this regard. But there has been no response from theCentre so far, the Minister further said, saying “we may only pray for the welfare of the State but in caseany eventuality takes place due to natural disaster, the Centre would be responsible for that”. The mostconcerning factor is that despite taking up this vary sensitive issue directly with the PM by the CM, theCentre has not moved forward, the Minister said. More so, land issue directly comes under the preview ofthe Centre, so we are of the opinion that the Centre in return for giving land for rehabilitation purpose insafer places may take the land of these families. Thus it can use the deserted land of these families forvarious kind of afforestary purposes, the Minister suggested. However, the Minister revealed that soonthe State Government would come out with a permanent rehabilitation for families of disaster proneareas. (Pioneer, 28/06/2011)886 applications received from unwilling land owners in SingurAltogether 886 applications have been received by the Hooghly district administration from "unwilling"land-owners in Singur, officials said today. A survey team from Alipore visited the Tata Motors plant site toassess the claims. The West Bengal government had yesterday started the process of formal handover ofland to the farmers by issuing a notice inviting applications for alternative plots of land. District MagistrateSripriya Rangarajan had issued the notice, asking the land-owners, whose names featured in theschedule prepared by the government in accordance with the Singur Land Rehabilitation andDevelopment Act 2011, to apply for alternative plots inside the project area. (DNA, 27/06/2011)Pro-Posco villagers do a U-turn, go against projectAbhay Charan Rout (46) of Nuagaon village did not want his betel vine demolished to make way forKorean steel major Posco’s $12 billion (Rs54,000 crore) plant. However, when the Jagatsinghpur districtadministration started land acquisition for the project from May 18 — after a clearance from the union ministry for environment and forests — he accepted a compensation of around Rs1.4 lakh for hisdemolished vine. “I had no choice. The administration announced over loudspeaker the vines would bedemolished anyway,” said Rout, who supported his nine-member family with an earning of about Rs2 lakha year from his vine, 18 cashew nut trees surrounding it and 50 goats. Rout knows the compensation willrun out. Now, he has joined the demonstrators standing in the way of India’s biggest foreign directinvestment. He and many others of Nuagaon, where a pro-Posco group — the United Action Committee— holds sway, have turned against the project. On June 21, the state government stopped landacquisition following weeks of protest during which children, women and the elderly formed human

arricades at the border of Gobindpur-Nuagaon villages, about 200 km east of Bhubaneswar, to block theentry of government officials. Orissa chief secretary BK Patnaik said, “The district administration isholding talks with the people. We hope to acquire land for the project peacefully.” The protesters believethere are no grounds for talks. “Overnight, we were termed as encroachers. My family earns more thanRs15,000 a month from our two betel vines and cows. Why should we trade this for an uncertain future?”asked Sabitri Sethi (54) of Dhinkia village. People of eight villages under Dhinkia, Gadakujanga andNuagaon gram panchayats are fighting against the project under the banner of the Posco PratirodhSangram Samiti (PPSS). The PPSS has rejected the state’s government’s R70 crore rehabilitationpackage for about 3,000 families. There are more than 4,000 betel vines in the forestland across thethree panchayats. Of the 4,004 acres required for the plant, about 3,000 acres is forestland. Theprotesters claim they have been cultivating betel for generations. The state government maintains theyare illegally occupying forest land. The Forest Rights Act (FRA) recognises rights of communities andindividuals over forest land. If they are members of the Scheduled Tribe, they can enjoy ownership rightsover the forest land under their occupation anytime before December 2005. However, Other TraditionalForest Dwellers need to prove they were dependent on their patch of land for 75 years. In the case ofVedanta’s mining lease in Niyamgiri hills, Orissa, the FRA went in favour of the tribals. However, inPosco’s case, the union environment ministry cleared the project on the basis of the state government’sstand that there were no forest dwellers in the area earmarked for the plant.(HT, 30/06/2011)Govt sticks to 70-30 formula for land acquisitionSetting aside recommendations of the National Advisory Council (NAC), the government has stuck to the70-30 formula on land acquisition that mandates a private company to buy 70 per cent land for itsprojects. Another proposal in the draft Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill prepared by the governmentalso ignores the Sonia Gandhi-led NAC's suggestion to pay compensation six times that of the registeredland deed. The government can acquire the remaining 30 per cent land required for the project. The Billrecommends that 60 per cent of the land value be given as solatium to the owner whose land is beingacquired for development projects. However, the government draft states that the land value be assessedon the basis of the sixth notice issued by the competent authority for land acquisition as against theprevalent practice of deciding the value on the basis of the fourth notice. "We have proposed that landvalue be calculated on the basis of the rate prevalent at the time the sixth notice for land acquisition isissued," an official said. The fourth notice would only make known the government's intent to acquire landin a given area. Officials expect the value of the land to escalate in the period between the fourth and thesixth notice thus helping farmers get better due for their land. Another proposal of the government makesit mandatory for an investor to give the land owners a share in the developed property. The Bill leaves itto the state government to decide on the share to be given to the land owners. The NAC had favoured100 per cent land acquisition by the government to ensure that farmers are not exploited by middle-men.The draft legislation, which is now being vetted by the Law Ministry, also recommends annuity of aminimum of Rs 1000 per acre per month for the next 33 years. The draft bill has accepted an NACsuggestion that if the land remains unused for five years from the time of acquisition, it will be returned tothe original owners. The bill also proposes that barren land be given the top priority for acquisition fordevelopment projects while fertile lands should be the last priority. It also links the compensation to bepaid for land acquisition to the Consumer Price Index, thereby doing away with the necessity foramendments to law for revision base prices for compensation. A proposal in the Rehabilitation andResettlement Bill also states that the price for rehabilitation be included in the project cost. (IE,04/07/2011)Release of irrigation grants to be linked with land acquisitionWith land acquisition turning out to be a major challenge for the progress of irrigation projects, the CentralWater Commission (CWC) has decided to link the release of grants for States' irrigation projects with theland acquisition process. Disclosing this at the inaugural session of a three-day training workshop on “Theprocess of project appraisal and monitoring in CWC,” organised by the Union Ministry of WaterResources in Bangalore on Monday, CWC Chief Engineer M. K. Sinha said that from next year it wouldbe mandatory for the State governments to submit certificates related to completion of land acquisitionprocess a year in advance to get the Central grants for irrigation projects. “There are instances in whichthe States have not been able to proceed further with the actual work despite the Centre releasing fundsto irrigation projects due to the delay in acquisition of land,” he pointed out. Later, he told reporters that

land acquisition was a major challenge for irrigation projects throughout the country. The CWC wantedthe State governments to expedite land acquisition either by modifying legislation related to landacquisition or by appointing an exclusive land acquisition officer to monitor the process. Speaking on theoccasion, CWC Chairman and Ex-officio Secretary to Union Government A. K. Bajaj expressed concernthat rapid urbanisation and growth in population had posed a challenge to the availability of quality water.Most of the water available in the country was unfit for drinking as well as irrigation purposes unless itwas treated, he said. The per capita availability of water, which stood around 5,000 cubic metres in 1950had now reduced to the range of 1,500-1,600 cubic metres. This was expected to dip to about 1,000cubic metres in the coming years, he said. Karnataka Water Resources Principal Secretary D. SathyaMurthy and Secretary B. G. Gurupadaswamy spoke on the occasion . (Hindu, 05/07/2011)Land Acquisition Act has become an engine of oppression: courtThe Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed concern over misuse of the Land Acquisition Act, a coloniallaw, by all States to acquire land from farmers for development in the guise of a ‘public purpose'. A Benchof Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly said that in the name of globalisation and land developmentthe States had marginalised farmers by paying a pittance as compensation. The Bench was hearing abatch of appeals against an Allahabad High Court order, which quashed the notifications for landacquisition in Greater Noida. The Bench made it clear that it would not stay the High Court order andwould hear the parties concerned. When senior counsel P.P. Rao, appearing for one of the builders, saidresidential complexes were being constructed for the needy, Justice Ganguly asked: “Do you think judgeslive in a fool's paradise? Look at your own brochure. It is saying about swimming pool, spa, tennis court,badminton court, beauty parlour, Ayurvedic massage, etc. All these are for poor people? Land is given fordevelopment which must be inclusive. The State is taking advantage of the law against the poor. Asinister campaign is made by various State governments. The State is doing a totally anti-people thing.”Justice Ganguly said: “The purpose of the land acquisition was being defeated. The poorest man insociety should benefit in the public interest but you [State] are responding in such a way that the poor aredriven out.” Justice Singhvi questioned the Uttar Pradesh government's rationale in changing land use inGreater Noida from industrial to residential purposes within 11 days. Though the State had the power tochange land use, in this case it was done in a hurry, he said. Justice Ganguly, expressing his anguish,said, “What farmers get are lathis and litigation. Men are arrested and women are raped. In the name ofglobalisation poor people are marginalised; why are terrorist activities increasing? Why so many peoplecommit suicide? They are pushed to the wall. [The] Land Acquisition Act has become an engine ofoppression for the common man. You [State] have virtually demolished every area for the benefit of aparticular society for which you work.” “There is greater danger to society. They take to crime. Once youtake away the land, you deprive the next five generation of farmers of their livelihood.” (Hindu,06/07/2011)Are hotels, malls for needy, SC asks up govtThe Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned the Mayawati government for changing the “land use” plan ofthree greater Noida plots, the acquisition of which from the farmers was quashed by the Allahabad highcourt after finding it illegal. During the inconclusive hearing on the petition of several real estate firmsallotted the land and also of the UP government, a bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly putsome probing questions to the state’s counsel on the change of land use plan within 11 days of theacquiring the land from the farmers and invoking of the “urgency” clause under the Land Acquisition Act(LAA). As senior advocate P.P. Rao, appearing for the state, argued that the land use plan form industrialdevelopment to housing was changed as no industry was ready to come to the area, the bench said thisis nothing but a “sinister campaign” and even the “horse would laugh at your theory.” The top courtpointed out that the land was acquired in 2009 for industrial development Invoking the clauses of “publicpurpose” and “urgency” under the LAA in the name of development. “The development should have somemeaning. State is taking advantage of this law. This is sinister campaign taken by several stategovernments. It is anti-people,” the court said taking tough stand against invoking of “urgency” clause atthe drop of the hat in land acquisition matters. The court questioned the state government’s claim that thechange of “land use” plan for housing was also for public purpose as the houses would be provided forneedy people. “Please answer our queries. Whose land is acquired and who are the needy people andfor whom are the houses being built? Are the builders building for needy people.. Do you think judges areliving in a fool’s paradise? What are the costs of these houses?” the bench demanded. The court said the

ochure of the real estate developers say that they would provide swimming pools, health clubs, tenniscourts, ayurvedic massage parlous and similar other luxurious facilities, “Are these facilities meant forcommon man and needy people...even the horse will laugh at your theory.” When Mr Rao insisted thatdefinition of public purpose was wider, the court said “public purpose means something, which helps thepoorest man in the society. You are doing something by which, the poor are being driven away. Thedevelopment should be inclusive, not exclusive.” The HC had struck down acquisition of nearly 230hectares of land in three villages at Greater Noida, including Shahberi and Surajpur on the ground thatthe land use was changed from industrial development to house and there was no reason for invoking theurgency clause. Besides, the HC had said that the farmers were paid compensation at the rate of `850per sq meter, while the market rate of the land was more that `10,000 per sq meter. Even on the apexcourt query, the UP government counsel and counsel for several real estate companies admitted that thepremium being charged by developers form the prospective flat buyers was more than `10,000 per sqmeter. The hearing would continue on Wednesday. (AA, 06/07/2011)Niyamgiri tribals join anti-Posco protestsA group of tribals belonging to primitive Dangaria Kandh community from Orissa's Niyamgiri areaThursday joined the villagers' protest against land acquisition for the $12 billion Posco steel project in thestate. More than 20 tribals visited the protest site in Jagatsinghpur district and expressed their solidarity tothe villagers, a protest leader told IANS. The Dangaria Kandh tribals from Kalahandi district have beenfighting for past many years to protect the Niyamgiri hills in their region from mining operations. Thetribals, armed with traditional weapons, came in a procession to the protest site near Govindpur villageand joined the villagers who have formed a human barricade to prevent entry of governemnt andcompany officials to the proposed site of the 12 million tonnes per annum capacity steel project.Thousands of villagers, including hundreds of women and children, have blocked the entry point to thesite for several weeks even as the government declared their assembly as illegal. Bari Pidikaka fromDangaria Kandh said his community will extend all necessary support to the villagers who have beenfighting to protect their farms and home lands from Posco. The union environment ministry last yearrejected London-listed Vedanta group's bauxite mining project at the Niyamgiri hills in Kalahandi district,saying it would affect the Dangaria Kandh tribals living in the area. "The support of the tribals who havesuccessfully fought the Vedanta mining project in Kalahandi has given us moral strength," an anti-Poscoagitation leader said. Orissa signed a pact with the South Korean steel major in 2005 for the 12 milliontonnes per annum steel project near port town of Paradip, about 120 km from here, the largest foreigninvestment in India. At least 2,900 acres of the total 4,004 acres required for the project is forest land. Thestate officials claimed they have already acquired half of the required land where the constructionactivities are in progress. While the project continues to face opposition from thousands of people led byPosco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), an anti-displacement group, the government which halted landacquisition in the trouble area June 14 said it will now focus on the lands already acquired. (DeccanHerald, 08/07/2011)K'taka Govt halts land acquisition for POSCO Plant (4)Bangalore, Jul 14 : After the misfired steel odyssey in Orissa,Korean steel major POSCO suffered asecond major blow in its pursuit in the southern state of Karnataka with the State Government halting landacquisition for the Rs 32,000 crore project after facing the wrath of farmers. Bowing to the growingopposition by farmers and religious heads, the BJP Government has decided to halt the land acquisitionprocess in Gadag District and decided to shift the project out of the District. POSCO had sought morethan 3300 acre of land for the proposed plant in an area which would be covered under lift irrigation bythe proposed Singatalur Lift Irrigation Project and encompassing medicinal and herbal park inKappadagudda. Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa last night asked the Gadag District DeputyCommissioner to immediately halt the land acquisition and said his government would set up industries inthe districts only on dry land and only if the farmers offered their land voluntarily in the interests ofencouraging industries and job creation. (New Kerala 14/7/11)KCCI challenged to hold debate on land acquisition (4)MANGALORE: The Krishi Bhoomi Samrakshana Samiti (KBSS), which is engaged in the fight againstland acquisition by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) for Mangalore SpecialEconomic Zone (MSEZ), challenged Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) to an open a

debate on the issue of land acquisition in the presence of media. KBSS president Madhukar Ameen toldreporters here on Saturday that KCCI, which is reluctant to shift traders from Bunder to APMC yard, hasno moral right to request the government for additional land for MSEZ. Let KCCI office bearers hold apublic debate before meeting the minister for large and medium industries Murugesh R Nirani foradditional land for MSEZ, he challenged. (Times of India 16/7/11)Kisan Mazdoor Sabha for ban on forced eviction of farmers (4)The All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha has demanded that the new law for Land Acquisition being proposedby the Union Rural Development minister should include a complete ban on forced eviction of farmers.Forced acquisition is a colonial concept and in India even erstwhile Kings did not have the right to evict afarmer even if he had not paid his tax and dues, said secretary AIKMS Ashish Mital. Often the kingsaltered the direction of the walls of their forts in order to avoid occupying fertile land. On the other hand todeprive the people of their rights on nature and livelihood and to levy taxes on them, the British enactedthe Land Acquisition Act 1894 and the various Forest Conservation Acts, etc. India is a agrarian countrywith possibility of developing self-sufficiency by having 3 to 4 crops on all fields and developing the localmarkets, he said. (Times of India 19/7/11)HC quashes acquisition of 600 hectares of land in Greater Noida (4)Allahabad, Jul 19 (PTI): In yet another setback to Mayawati government, the Allahabad High Court todayquashed acquisition of nearly 600 hectares of land in two villages in Greater Noida for residentialpurposes. Acting on a batch of petitions by farmers, a division bench comprising Justice Sunil Ambawaniand Justice S S Tiwari set aside the acquisition of 589.13 hectares of land in Patwari and Dewla villages,falling under Dadri tehsil of Gautambuddh Nagar district. The land was acquired by the state governmentthrough notifications in March 2008 and May 2008 for building residential complexes in Greater Noidaarea neighbouring Delhi. The order came barely a fortnight after the Supreme Court had struck downacquisition of 156 hectares of land by the state government in village Shahberi in the area, saying theauthorities were "subserving" private builders in the name of public interest. The apex court had on July 6upheld the Allahabad High Court order which had quashed the land acquisition by the Greater NoidaIndustrial Development Authority under the urgency clause of the Land Acquisition Act and directed thatthe property be returned to the farmers. he Authority and builders had moved the apex court challengingthe High Court decision. (Deccan Herald 20/7/11)WB to withdraw cases against agitators (4)Kolkata, July 21, DHNS: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday announced thewithdrawal of all criminal cases against those who participated in the anti-land acquisition agitation atSingur and Nandigram during the regime of the previous Left Front government headed by BuddhadevBhattacharjee. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses a rally organised to observeMartyrs’ Day in the recent assembly polls, at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on Thursday. PTITheannouncement, coming close on the heels of the decision of the state government to release 52 politicalprisoners including a Maoist, was welcomed with a thunderous applause by a massive crowd thatgathered at the rain-soaked Brigade Parade Ground to observe the Martyrs’ Day. The Brigade rally alsomarked the landslide victory of the Trinamool Congress in the April/May Assembly elections. Stating thatit was part of the TMC poll pledge, Banerjee, however, cautioned the party supporters against indulging inviolence or corruption. “I’ll not tolerate either of the two,” she observed. The chief minister made it clearthat even though the Marxists had indulged in murder to terrorise people, there was no place for reprisalsin a democracy. “People of West Bengal have already handed out a strong punishment to the CPM (bybanishing them from power). There is no need to take the law into your hands as it will thwart progressand developmental initiatives of the government,” she told the crowd that swayed every time shedisclosed one or the other programmes of the TMC-Congress alliance government that was voted topower with a massive mandate couple of months back. The new government, incidentally, has completedtwo months in office on Wednesday. Mamata, after taking oath on May 20 last, had announced that thevictory celebrations would be held on July 21 to coincide with the Martyrs’ Day giving a new dimension tothe struggle and sacrifices which the party had passed through since 1993. Thirteen youth Congresssupporters fell to police bullet on July 21, 1993, during the Writers’ Buildings “blockade” aimed at oustingthe Marxists from power. Braving the inclement weather and downpour in several parts of the city and

elsewhere in the state, a large number of TMC supporters, carrying party flags and cut-outs of the partychief, assembled at the sprawling ground where corporation engineers had to install pumps to drain waterto facilitate the gathering. Several artistes from the Bengal tinsel town and intellectuals includingMagsaysay winner Mahasweta Devi attended the rally. (Deccan Herald 22/7/11)Land acquisition bill in public domain within a week: Jairam Ramesh (4)DHAMTARI/RAIPUR (Chhattisgarh): A quick lunch stop at Gangrel, Chhattisgarh's biggest dam, furtherreaffirmed the views of Jairam Ramesh, who has recently taken over charge as rural developmentminister, tasked with drafting a new law for land acquisition. "For land acquisition to be credible, it must beaccompanied by relief and rehabilitation. This dam is a classic example of how land was acquired, theproject built, but relief and rehabilitation is still to be completed," he said. Ramesh said the draft billintegrates land acquisition with relief and rehabilitation and will be placed in the public domain this week.His predecessor Vilasrao Deshmukh had resisted the clubbing of land acquisition with R&R, and haddiffered from the recommendations of the National Advisory Council (NAC), which was involved in draftingthe bill, but Ramesh appears to have accepted most of its recommendations. The draft bill, said sources,is likely to limit the government's powers of eminent domain to land acquired for strategic and defencepurposes. In the case of land for industry, the consent of 80% of those affected, not just land owners buteven landless people of the village, will be required. The compensation is likely to be six times theregistered value, with Rs 2000 per month annuity for 20 years. If the value of land goes up in futuretransactions for the next ten years, 20% of the increased value would go to the original land owners. Onthe question of whether land acquisition will be done by the government, as NAC has recommended,Ramesh said, "there will be occasions where private parties will buy land directly, but this will be subjectto a certain scale or limit". Sources said the limit is likely to be 100 acres, beyond which the governmentwill be the sole acquirer of land. Land acquisition in India is currently governed by a colonial law formed in1894. The minister emphasised the need for a set of rules that would address the needs of economicgrowth as well as be sensitive to both land owners and livelihood dependers. "The main contributor toNaxal problem is that in central India, tribal communities have been subjected to multiple displacements,"he said, in the context of Chhattisgarh. He added that the land acquisition bill will be compliant with bothForest Rights Act (FRA) and Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act (PESA), which offer furthersafeguards to tribal communities. According to one interpretation, PESA makes it mandatory for projectsto seek consent from gram sabhas in tribal areas, while another interpretation limits this to consultationand not consent. However, Ramesh said he interprets PESA as mandating 'consent'. (Times of India24/7/11)NBA alleges scam of Rs 500 crore in rehab of displaced (4)Indore, Jul 24 (PTI): Alleging large scale irregularities in distribution of compensation package for tribalsdisplaced by Sardar Sarovar Project, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) today said a scam to the tune ofRs 500 crore was perpetuated in connivance with Madhya Pradesh government officials. According toNBA, fake registries were made in the name of fictitious persons for syphoning off huge amount ofcompensation meant for the real beneficiaries. "This scam in the rehabilitation of affected persons of theSardar Sarovar Project involves over Rs 500 crore, which took place due to the close nexus between theofficials and touts," alleged NBA leader Medha Patkar. She alleged the scam took place between 2002-2008 and it mainly involves officials of the rehabilitation, revenue and registry departments of MadhyaPradesh. Patkar also alleged all claims about rehabilitation of the project-affected people turned out to befalse as in many instances the registry papers of the land purchased for them turned out to be fake. TheNBA leaders also presented a tribal Kelya from Barwani district who told reporters that a person namedVijay Jat had arrived in his village and took him along with four others to Khargone for award ofcompensation. Later, he asked us to put thumb-impression on few papers and paid us Rs 50,000 and Rs30,000 respectively and later disappeared, Kelya said. Since then the tribals had not seen him, Kelyasaid, adding, he, along with scores of others were duped in a similar fashion by touts in connivance withthe officials. The cases of forgery are mainly reported from eight districts including Khargone, Barwani,Dhar and Dewas, an NBA activist said, adding over 3,000 such fake entries are under the scanner in thisconnection. Hundreds of tribals from western Madhya Pradesh lost their land under the Sardar SarovarProject. Meanwhile, Narmada Valley Development Minister, Kanhaiyalal Agrawal said the stategovernment on directives of the High Court has constituted Justice S S Jha Commission to probe into theissue and the guilty will be punished once the report is out. (Deccan Herald 24/7/11)

SEZ land use policy flayed (4)The All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) will launch an agitation against the United Democratic Front(UDF) government's decision to allow commercial operations on 50 per cent space in Special EconomicZones (SEZ), AITUC State general secretary Kanam Rajendran has said. Inaugurating a districtconvention of the AITUC here on Monday, he said the decision would benefit industrialists as they woulduse prime land for business purposes. The AITUC would seek the co-operation of other trade unions tofight the new policy. The trade unions would organise joint agitations against the ‘anti-labour and antipeoplepolicies of the Centre.' AITUC district president N.G. Muraleedharan Nair presided over themeeting. Communist Party of India (CPI) district secretary Vijayan Kunisseri, party State council memberK.E. Haneefa, and AITUC district secretary K.C. Jayapalan spoke. (The Hindu 25/7/11)Land draft bill spells out public purpose (4)New Delhi, July 24: A meeting that worked on the draft bill to amend the land acquisition act has defined“project for public purpose”, a key term in the legislation. “It refers to any project that benefits the public.This includes industry by private entities if it renders any benefit to the public,” said N.C. Saxena, amember of the National Advisory Council (NAC), who attended the meeting convened by ruraldevelopment minister Jairam Ramesh. When land is acquired for industry, the landowners will be paid ata rate six times that mentioned on the registered sale deed of any plot in the area in the previous sixmonths. There will also be an additional solatium, whose quantity is yet to be finalised. If the land pricegoes up between the time of acquisition and that of possession by the industry, 20 per cent of theincreased price will be paid to the landowners. Apart from this, the land-losing families — and thelandless households dependent on the land sold — will each receive Rs 2,000 per month for 20 years.This sum will be inflation-indexed: it will go up as inflation rises. Besides, one member from each landlosingfamily will be entitled to a job in the industry project. If a family lacks any eligible candidate, it willget a one-time compensation of Rs 2 lakh. If a project displaces families, they will have to be resettled incolonies with basic amenities such as schools and roads and will get an additional Rs 3,000 a month for12 months. If a tribal family loses land to any project, it will be given an acre elsewhere. Ramesh said onThursday the bill would be introduced in Parliament in the monsoon session that starts next month.(Telegraph 25/7/11)Implementation of Singur Act illegal: Pal (4)KOLKATA: The procedure adopted to implement the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Actwas illegal and thus invalid, Tata Motors counsel Samaraditya Pal submitted before Calcutta high courton Monday. Pal was deposing on the sixth day of his argument on the company's petition seeking todeclare the Act unconstitutional. Arguing before Justice Soumitra Pal, The Tata counsel submitted thateven if one assumes that the Act is valid, the procedure through which the government tried to implementit is illegal and thus invalid. It was further argued that on the evening of June 21, a day after the law tookeffect, the joint secretary in the industries department informed the Hooghly DM that a notice should begiven to the MD of Tata Motors in Mumbai declaring that the Singur land had been taken over. Thecounsel alleged that the notice was served on the company's Mumbai office on June 22, but the officereceived it on June 28, days after the state dispossessed Tata Motors from its valid leasehold propertywithout giving any time to defend itself. Pal expressed surprise that the DM's notice to the company waswitnessed by five persons who were in no way connected with the government office. They are merefarmers of Singur. He said this showed that the DM issued the notice under tremendous pressure. Thehead of the district administration had issued notice affixing five farmers as witnesses. Is this the waygovernment officers work? Pal questioned. Pal further argued that the agreement between WBIDC andthe company was reached on March 15, 2007 with a condition that the project should be completed onMarch 15, 2010. But on June 22, the government asked Tata Motors what their future plan was on theSingur land but never indicated the lease would be terminated. The argument will continue on Tuesday.(Times of India 26/7/11)Airport expansion: farmers seek land for land (4)The farmers of Buddhavaram and Davajigudem villages near Gannavaram are once again on theagitation path in protest against what they allege the unilateral move to acquire their lands for airportexpansion, even as the district administration has begun the process initially with the verification of

were placed in front of the BOA before the notification, it may not be appropriate for MADC to restrain thecompany from leasing the residential units to outsiders at this stage. (Times of India 1/8/11)Dharna planned against draft Land Acquisition Bill (4)The first major opposition to the draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill,2011 will be in the form of a three-day dharna here beginning on Wednesday by the project-affectedpeople. Various peoples' movements under the banner of SANGHARSH have decided to stage a dharnaat Jantar Mantar protesting the new draft and demanding that the government come up with acomprehensive National Development Planning Act, that would take care of the need for land, the landuse alterations that are required for genuine public purposes and land reforms for distributive justice.Social rights activist Medha Patkar said that the proposed bill failed to take into consideration theconcerns of millions of people affected by various projects and hence, was not a comprehensive draft.SANGHARSH said comparatively progressive laws such as the Panchayats Extension to ScheduledAreas (PESA) Act, 1996 and the Forest Rights Act, 2006 too had unfortunately come under threat of notbeing implemented, or, worse, being misused for distributing land titles to others. It wondered how somesuperficial amendments as proposed in the new legislation would change the basic structure of thiscolonial anti-people process and approach. People from 15 States will stage the dharna and demand thatthe new legislation focus on establishing land rights of the marginal farmers, landless workers andpeasants and their control over the natural resources, Ashok Chaudhary of the National Forum of ForestPeople and Forest Workers said. In addition to demanding a comprehensive legislation covering theissues of land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement, the dharna will also raise issues relating todams, thermal and nuclear power projects, urban displacement, forest rights and community governance,struggles against corporations and protection of livelihood rights of rural and urban communities in theform of statutory government entitlements like universal PDS and adequate beneficial rights to BPLmembers. They would oppose any move at introducing cash transfers. Organisations sponsoring thedharna include the National Alliance of People's Movements, National Forum of Forest People and ForestWorkers, National Hawkers' Federation, National Domestic Workers' Union, the SEZ Virodhi Manch, JanSangharsh Samanvaya Samiti, Narmada Bachao Andolan — Madhya Pradesh, Penn Urimai Iyakkam —Tamil Nadu, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti — Assam, Nadi Ghati Morcha — Chhattisgarh, Ghar BachaoGhar Banao Andolan — Mumbai, Adivasi Mul Nivasi Astitva Raksha Manch — Maharashtra, JanSangharsh Vahini, Matu Jan Saghatan — Uttarakhand, Machchi Maar Adhikar Sangharsh Samiti —Gujarat, Renuka Dam Sangharsh Samiti — Himachal Pradesh, Birsa Munda Bhu Adhikar Manch —Jharkhand, and Posco Prathirodh Sangram Samiti – Orissa. (The Hindu 3/8/11)Protest against draft land acquisition Bill (4)The State committee of the Highway Action Forum has called for maximum participation in the three-daydharna led by social activist Medha Patkar at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi in protest against the proposalsin the draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011. In a statement,action forum district unit secretary Giri Prasad said that instead of serving the thousands of peopledisplaced and affected by the various highway development projects, the proposals appeared to patentlyserve the interests of private sector construction monopolists. It alleged moves to privatise the highwayconstruction sector. Land to be acquired for the development of highways was being kept out of thepurview of the Bill. This gave rise to fears that such land would ultimately come under total control of theconstruction monopolists, the forum said. (The Hindu 5/8/11)Land Act a fraud, learn from Gujarat, says SC (4)Forcible acquisition of land has turned the 117-year-old Land Acquisition Act into a “fraud”, the SupremeCourt said on Thursday, calling the legislation a handiwork of “sick” minds with no concern for welfare ofthe poor. It went on to praise the Gujarat government, saying no cases of farmers or the poor beinguprooted from their land had come to court from the state. “The Act has become a fraud. It seems to havebeen devised by people with a sick mind who had scant regard for the welfare of the common man. It istime the Act is scrapped,” a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and H L Dattu observed, while hearingpetitions by farmers from Hapur in Uttar Pradesh who had lost 82 acres to a leather industrial complex.The 1894 Act is in the process of being repealed, with a new Bill set to be tabled in the Monsoon Sessionof Parliament. The Supreme Court compared states where “forcible acquisition” using an emergencyclause under the Act had almost become a norm to Gujarat. “But there is one state from where we do not

eceive any such complaints. Look at Ahmedabad which is developing but there are no complaints fromthat place. They have the same officers of the same cadre as in the rest of the country,” the court said,adding officers from other states can train under their Gujarat counterparts. The court even directlyaddressed Additional Solicitor General Harin Rawal, who hails from Gujarat, to say that the law officerwould “vouch” for the court’s remarks about his state’s policy on land acquisition. (Indian Express 5/8/11)Centre to evolve consensus on Land Acquisition Bill: Ramesh (4)Hyderabad, Aug 6 (PTI): Underlining the importance of addressing tribal issues more effectively, UnionRural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today said that the Centre was trying to evolve a consensuson the proposed Land Acquisition Bill. "I know there are different views on the proposed Land AcquisitionBill. Many people welcomed it while many criticised. Through a process of debate, we will arrive at anational consensus on the legislation," Jairam told a press conference here today. "This is a sensitive Billin which rehabilitation and resettlement (of the displaced) is also a part. It is sensitive to farmers andcompensates not only farmers but also the landless and whose livelihoods are lost," he said. Under theproposed legislation, land acquisition process would not be completed till the rehabilitation andresettlement package is fully implemented. "Land acquisition has become the single biggest issue in stateafter state. As many as 50 million people have been displaced because of land acquisition in the countryin the last 60 years. Of these, two-thirds were tribals. They have been displaced not once but subjected tomultiple displacement," the minister noted. This has been one of the main contributors to the growth ofnaxalism in central India, he said. "We must address issues of tribal communities more sensitively. Landacquisition, mining, industry, infrastructure...unless we are sensitive to these issues, we will not be gettinga grip on what the emerging phenomenon is," Jairam observed. Referring to the Mahatma GandhiNational Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, Jairam said the 'structure of power relations' in ruralIndia was changing because of NREGP. "The NREGP has created three impacts: agricultural wage rateshave gone up, which is a positive sign as rural poverty will come down; distress migration is downdistinctly and community assets are being created. There is also a 10-20 per cent increase in cultivablearea due to NREGP in both agriculture and horticulture," Jairam pointed out. Andhra Pradesh, he said,was showing the way to other states in respect of social audit in NREGP. "I am happy with the socialaudit system in AP but not in other states," the Minister said in reply to a question. He said theComptroller and Auditor General of India has agreed to appoint a Principal Accountant General forexclusively auditing rural development programmes. "Since we are spending a staggering Rs 90,000crore annually on rural development programmes – the second largest budgetary expenditure afterdefence – there is need for an exclusive auditing," Jairam added. (Deccan Herald 6/8/11)National consensus needed on Land Acquisition Bill: Ramesh (4)Hyderabad, Aug 7 : Underlining the importance of land acquisition related tribal issues, RuralDevelopment Minister Jairam Ramesh has said that the government is trying to evolve a nationalconsensus on the proposed Land Acquisition Bill. Addressing a news conference here on Saturday,Ramesh said there are different views on the proposed bill, many people welcomed it while manycriticised it. "I know there are different views on this Bill (Land Acquisition Bill). But through a process ofdebate, we will arrive at a national consensus on this legislation," he added. Ramesh further said the newbill will not only compensate the farmers but also the landless people, whose livelihoods will be lost due toland acquisition. "I hope that very soon we will have a sensitive Land Acquisition R&R (rehabilitation andresettlement) Bill that is sensitive to the needs of farmers. Let me tell you, this new bill not onlycompensates farmers and land owners but it also compensates the landless and those whose livelihoodswill be lost when land has been acquired," he added. Mentioning about the relief package in the proposedlegislation, Ramesh said land acquisition process would not be completed till the rehabilitation andresettlement package is fully implemented. "Land acquisition will not be completed till R&R package hasbeen implemented because let me say, let me accept that in the last 60 years over 50 million people havebeen displaced because of industrial projects, all over India. Out of the 50 million almost two-thirds aretribal population and many of these have been displaced not once, they are subject to multipledisplacements," said Ramesh. Ramesh said that such land acquisitions have been one of the maincontributors to the growth of Maoist activities in central India. "To my mind, this has been one of the maincontributors to the growth of naxalism (Maoism) in central India. So we must address issues of tribalcommunities more sensitively. Land acquisition, mining, industry, infrastructure, that is what I meant by

saying, you know, the modern phase, unless we are sensitive to these issues, we will not be getting a gripon what the emerging phenomenon is," added Ramesh. (New Kerala 7/8/11)UP govt changes law to deny farmers right to reclaim land (4)LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday passed a Bill in the assembly that will preventfarmers from reclaiming their land once it's acquired. The Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning andDevelopment Amendment Bill, 2011 was passed amid protests in the assembly before it was adjournedsine die. The legislation replaces an earlier provision that allowed farmers to reclaim their acquired land ifit remained unused for more than five years. The amendment was passed on the last day of theassembly's monsoon session. The Bill comes amid growing instances of farmers wanting their land backthat has stalled various projects, particularly in Noida. The amendment empowers the government tokeep the unused land as long as it wants. It contradicts the Congress-led UPA government's proposedland acquisition and rehabilitation law that would give farmers the right to reclaim the acquired land lyingunused for five years. Farmers from Gautam Budh Nagar's Nithari, Chaura Sadarpur and Morna filed apetition in Allahabad High Court on Thursday to get back their land acquired in 1976. They wantedaround 1,500 bighas of unused land acquired for urbanization to be returned to them. The HC admittedthe petition and fixed August 17 for hearing the case along with other petitions challenging landacquisition. (Times of India 12/8/11)Relief to SEZ PDFs soon (4)MANGALORE: The Project Displaced Families (PDFs) of Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) canheave a sigh of relief as their woes are likely to be over soon, with government deciding to issue agovernment order on the new rehabilitation package. The government order pertaining to theiremployment will come out soon,'' said chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda to TOI. Environment ministerKrishna Palemar said the June 13 special package discussed under his chairmanship will be handed overto the CM on Tuesday. Thereafter the GO will just a week,'' he assured. The process got derailed afterthe June meeting after Bajpe-Permude-Kalavaru Samyukta Hitarakshana Samithi members wanted 60:40representations in favour of direct job seekers lest they would approach the court. Palemar said he hadtold the Samithi find an amicable settlement to the issue discussing it with SEZ PDFs. But since theyhave not got back, I cannot wait forever and will hand over the package details to CM,'' he added. TheSEZ PDFs had ended their 14 day blockade of the corridor road leading to Mangalore SEZ followingannouncement of a new package on June 13. The package will be implemented by the companies threemonths after the Government Order on the amended comprehensive action plan. The samithi'scontention is that direct job seekers who lost land should be given 60% preference while drawing the finalpackage. (Times of India 15/8/11)Acquisition plan back in Halligudi (4)Bagalkot, Aug 15, DHNS: The ghost of land acquisition for the proposed Posco steel plant has returned toHalligudi in the district. Within a few weeks after the agitation against the land acquisition was withdrawnfollowing an assurance by the government not to acquire the land forcefully, Minister for IndustriesMurugesh Nirani on Monday said over 80 per cent of the farmers have given written consent to part withtheir land for the proposed steel unit. He said a final decision on the acquisition would be taken within amonth. A meeting will be held on August 23 with farmers, leaders of the Opposition parties, legislators,Zilla Panchayat members and seers, to discuss the issue of setting up the steel unit, he added. Thefarmers, led by several organisations and pontiffs of various mutts including Annadaneeshwar Swami,had staged a protest for over weeks against the acquisition. The minister said: “The protests were stagedby those who had no stake in the issue.” He reiterated that if not in Halligudi, the steel plant project wouldbe shifted to Bagalkot, Bijapur, Yadgir or Raichur. However, the minister added, the farmers would not beforced to part with their land for any reason. The second edition of the Global Investors’ Meet (GIM) willbe held on July 7, 2012, Nirani said. Warren Buffet, popular as Investment Guru, will be special attractionat the meet. He claimed North Karnataka has bagged 65 per cent of the projects that the investors agreedto set up at the last GIM. The industries have deposited Rs 12,000 crore with the Karnataka IndustrialAreas Development Board (KIADB), he added. Nirani said the government has contemplated a newKIADB Act as the existing polices framed in 1966 have several loopholes. The new policies will bring intransparency and clear confusions over the land acquisition, he added. (Deccan Herald 15/8/11)

Singur case: West Bengal to begin arguments today (4)The West Bengal government will commence its arguments on the petition filed by Tata Motorschallenging the Constitutional validity of the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011 beforethe Calcutta High Court on Wednesday. West Bengal's Advocate General Anindya Mitra will begin hissubmissions before Justice I. P. Mukerji followed by other counsel on the government's panel. Apart frompresenting the State's point of view, the panel is also expected to address queries raised by JusticeMukerji, including whether provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 can be read into the Act and whythe government took possession of the land “within a matter of hours” after Industries Minister ParthaChatterjee had announced that it had come into effect. Samaraditya Pal, counsel for Tata Motors, saidhere on Tuesday that the Act was legislated for “nothing else but acquisition” as was evident in itsprovisions regarding vesting the land with the State, restoring possession and compensation. Mr. Palemphasised that the Act was void because it dealt with acquisition, a matter that appears in theconcurrent list of the Constitution and its provisions were repugnant to the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.The assent from the President, which is required when a State law contravenes a Central law on a matterthat appears in the concurrent list, had not been obtained. Mr. Samaraditya Pal had begun hissubmissions before Justice Mukerji on July 28 after Justice Soumitra Pal, who had heard the case tillthen, recused himself. Over the past three weeks, he has challenged both the Constitutional validity of theAct as well as the actions taken by the government even if the Act was considered valid. Mr. SamaradityaPal has argued that the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011 was not legislated for a“public purpose” – a prerequisite for acquisition. He claimed that the Act, which empowered thegovernment to take over the land of the now relocated Tata Nano small car factory in Singur to return aportion of it to “unwilling farmers,” benefited certain individuals – “those persons who had supported theparty [the Trinamool Congress] in the elections.” He had also argued that the distinction made betweenwilling and unwilling farmers in the Act was based on an “absurd and arbitrary concept,” which was notrecognised and was in fact in violation of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. He also emphasised that theSingur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011 did not specify the amount of compensation or theprinciples under which the compensation is to be determined. Providing a detailed account of thedevelopments of June 21, 22 and 23, he said the government had acted in “undue haste” in taking“wrongful and forcible possession” of the land at Singur. (The Hindu 17/8/11)A good Bill that disappoints (4)Ramaswamy R. Iyer: The Land Acquisition and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill 2011 seems to bedriven by a desire to make acquisition for industrialisation and urbanisation easier. One started readingthe new Draft National Land Acquisition and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill 2011 with expectationsof a great improvement over the 2007 Bills. There are indeed some very good features in the new Bill but,on the whole, one must regretfully report disappointment. Let us see how the Bill deals with some of thekey issues involved. (i) Acquisition of agricultural land: The Bill rules out the acquisition, not of all irrigatedagricultural land, but of multi-cropped irrigated agricultural land. That limited exclusion seems rather halfhearted.(ii) Avoiding or minimising displacement: A serious concern about the trauma of displacementdoes not seem to be the driving force behind the Bill. The principles of ‘no forced displacement' and ‘free,informed prior consent' are not mentioned. (Incidentally, the condition of consent by 80 per cent of theland-owners applies only to land-acquisition by the government for companies including PPP cases, andnot to governmental acquisition for itself. It appears that there has been no dilution at all of ‘eminentdomain'.) There are indeed a number of good provisions relating to displacement (SIA, review of SIA byan Expert Committee, consideration of ‘less displacing alternative', public hearing, etc.), but the finaldecision is that of the bureaucracy. If a statutory clearance is needed for cutting a tree or for causing anenvironmental impact, should it not be required for displacing people? If the National RehabilitationCommission mentioned in the 2007 Bill had been retained, a statutory displacement clearance by it couldhave been prescribed, but the present Bill envisages no such Commission. (iii) Inadequacy ofcompensation: The present Bill increases the compensation amount significantly. This is welcome.Whether the earlier problems of delays and corruption in the payment process will disappear or diminish,remains to be seen. (iv) The acquisition of land by the state for private companies: A view, held by manyfor a long time, is that there is no reason why the state should use its sovereign power to acquire land forprivate companies which are primarily in business for profit and not for conferring benefits on the public.

The 2007 Bills had sought to reduce the extent of land acquisition by the state for a company to 30 percent , if the company purchases 70 per cent of the land needed by negotiation. The present Bill doesaway with the 70:30 formula, but provides for ‘partial' acquisition by the state for a company if a companyso requests. Presumably ‘partial' acquisition could go up to near-full acquisition by the state. This seemsa retrograde step. (v) Private purchase: As for private negotiation, the Minister himself refers in hisForeword to the “asymmetry of power (and information) between those wanting to acquire the land andthose whose lands are being acquired”, but the Bill provides no mechanism to reduce that asymmetry. Itdoubtless extends the R&R provisions to private negotiated purchases of land but provides no safeguardagainst unfair negotiation. (Even the extension of the R&R provisions to negotiated purchases — thelegality of which may be challenged — applies only where a company buys 100 acres or more, and thatthreshold can be easily side-stepped in ways that need not be spelt out here.) One wishes that theMinister had strengthened the hands of the weaker party in the negotiation by providing — this is merelyan illustration — that the compensation that the land-owners would have got under this Bill if the land hadbeen acquired by the government (to be determined by the collector) would be the floor below which theprice negotiated by the company with the land-owners shall not fall. (vi) Change of land use: Thatsafeguard might ensure a fair price, but there is also the question of transfer of agricultural land to nonagriculturaluse and the implications for food security. One possibility might be to say that all acquisition ofland, including acquisitions for companies, must be only by the state; but that does not seem desirableand, in any case, it is not really an answer to the problem of land-transfer away from agriculture. Anotherpossibility is that private purchases of agricultural land should be subject to state regulation from the pointof view of land-use. That might be open to the objection of undue interference with a landowner's right tosell his land. On the whole, the answer to the question of minimising transfers of agricultural land to nonagriculturaluse might lie in policies supportive of agriculture rather than in control or regulation over landtransactions. (vii) Definition of ‘public purpose': An issue that has persistently figured in the debate duringthe last decade or two is the need to narrow the definition of ‘public purpose' and limit it to a few strictlygovernmental purposes (schools, dispensaries, etc). The present Bill moves in exactly the oppositedirection. It defines ‘public purpose' very broadly and leaves it to the bureaucracy to decide each case. Isit right to assume that any industry ipso facto serves a public purpose warranting the alienation ofagricultural land? For instance, in the Singur episode land acquisition was for ‘industry', i.e., Tatas' smallcar factory; was that ‘public purpose'? It can be so declared under the present Bill. Again, ‘infrastructure'includes ‘tourism', which would permit the acquisition of land for building hotels. It seems desirable todefine ‘public purpose' somewhat more stringently. (viii) Coverage of ‘project-affected persons': The Billrefers to loss of primary livelihoods but links it to the acquisition of land. The term ‘livelihoods' is illustratedby a reference to the gathering of forest produce, hunting, fishing, etc; there is no reference to sellers ofgoods and services to the people in the project area, who will lose their livelihoods when the peoplewhom they serve move away to resettlement areas. It is not clear whether they will be regarded asproject-affected persons. (ix) Social Impact Assessment: On Social Impact Assessment the present Bill isan improvement on the 2007 Bill, but the idea of SIA still falls short: it does not cover the disappearanceof a whole way of life; the dispersal of close-knit communities; the loss of a centuries-old relationship withnature; the loss of roots; and so on. It is good that the SIA will be reviewed by an independent multidisciplinaryexpert body, but it should first be prepared by a similar body. The Bill leaves the SIA to beprepared by the “appropriate government.” (x) Rehabilitation package: The rehabilitation package isdistinctly inferior to the packages already established in certain projects. The principle of ‘land for land'has been abandoned. It figures only in the case of irrigation projects, and there the Bill envisages oneacre per family instead of two acres as in the Sardar Sarovar Project. There are two points here. First, it isnot clear why the Bill specifies irrigation projects; hydroelectric projects and flood control also have thesame impacts as irrigation projects, and in any case many projects are ‘multi-purpose' projects. Secondly,compensation and rehabilitation should have reference not to the nature of the project but to the nature ofthe impact. Whatever be the project, if an agricultural community is uprooted from its land andhomestead, it has to be enabled to practise agriculture elsewhere, and not expected to becomecarpenters or weavers or traders. (xi) Other matters: A number of officials and institutions are specified inthe Bill, such as the Collector, Administrator of R&R, Commissioner of R&R, etc., but it is only in the R&RCommittee that there is a significant non-official presence. The National Monitoring Committee is not‘participatory'; apart from officials, it includes only a few experts. As indicated earlier, the idea of aNational Rehabilitation Commission has been abandoned. Incidentally, it is not clear why displacement by

natural calamities should be brought within the purview of this Bill. There is a vital difference betweenunavoidable displacement caused by nature and deliberate displacement caused by human decisions.Summing up, the Bill seems to be essentially driven by a desire to make land acquisition forindustrialisation and urbanisation easier. It is clear that the Bill, which does contain many good features,nevertheless requires substantial improvement. (The Hindu: Opinion 18/8/11)High Court mulls if Singur land be an public interest case (4)Kolkata, Aug 16: Can the land in Singur, taken over by the West Bengal government from Tata Motors fordistribution to unwilling farmers be classified as a step in public interest, Justice Indra PrasannaMukherjee of Calcutta high court asked the Advocate General Anindya Mitra on Wednesday. JusticeMukherjee is hearing the case after Justice Soumitra Pal rescued himself from the case citing personalground. Mr Mitra, opposing the lawsuit before the bench, said that the state government's move to takeback the land from Tata Motors by invoking the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011,was for the '' public purpose.'' Echoing the similar vein, advocate Kalyan Banerjee, who also defended thegovernment's move saying that the erstwhile Left Front govenment had forcibily acquired the land fromthe unwilling farmers. The govenment enacted the law and took possesion of the land for the interest ofthe ''poor people,'' he said. In a surprising move, Justice Mukherjee on Tuesday asked the AdvocateGeneral Mitra if there was any provision under the provisions of the Singur Land Rehabilitation andDevelopment Act, 2011, to hammer out a settlement on the lawsuit. '' We can always sit together and setthe terms and conditions for the settlement or we can seek arbitration,'' Mr Mitra told the bench. TataMotors' counsel Sidhartha Mitra also echoed the similar sentiment. '' The company has no problem todiscuss a compensation package with the state..'' Tata Motors, in its petition, however, had stated, '' Thepetitioners' losses are around 1,400 crore, which includes investment on the ground that is sought to betaken over the government and various costs and losses.'' The lease agreement between the WestBengal Industrial Development Corporation and Tata Motors had kept the option for compensation open ifthe land was taken back. (New Kerala 19/8/11)Singur land will be used for development, assures West Bengal (4)Kolkata: The West Bengal government on Thursday told the Calcutta High Court that the 600 acresacquired from “willing farmers” in Singur would “undoubtedly” be used for socio-economic development,even though at this stage it was not possible to specify which industry would come up in the 600 acre site.Countering the argument made earlier by Tata Motor's counsel Samaraditya Pal that the Singur LandRehabilitation and Development Act 2011 was not legislated for a public purpose but was in the interestof certain individuals, Advocate-General Anindya Mitra said that the land would be utilised for socioeconomicdevelopment of the State and an “undoubted public purpose.” Mr. Mitra said the land to bereturned to the unwilling farmers was less than 400 acres. He emphasised that “a line must be drawn”between those farmers who remained unwilling throughout the process of land acquisition and those whosaid they were willing after accepting compensation. Mr. Pal had earlier argued that the distinctionbetween willing and unwilling owners was not recognised by the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and that thereturn of land to “unwilling owners” could not be a public purpose. During the day, Mr. Mitra gave adetailed account of the circumstances that led to “the abandonment” of the project in Singur by TataMotors. “We are not saying that Tata Motors had abandoned the project, we are saying that theyabandoned it at Singur,” he said. He quoted from the annual reports of the company to ascertain whenthe transfer of plant and equipment to Sanand in Gujarat had been completed. He noted that besides thecost of Rs. 67 crore for transferring equipment, there was nothing in the company's financial statementsto reflect the Rs. 1,800 crore loss the company claimed it had incurred. (The Hindu 19/8/11)Land bill to be retrospective: Jairam Ramesh (4)New Delhi, Aug 19 : Modifications have been made to the draft land acquisition bill by tightening thedefinition of public purpose and introducing a new clause for its retrospective implementation, RuralDevelopment Minister Jairam Ramesh said Friday. He said the draft land acquisition and rehabilitationand resettlement bill has been sent with modifications for inter-ministerial consultations, and hoped itwould be introduced in the ongoing monsoon session of parliament. "We have circulated a revised draftbill for inter-ministerial consultations on Aug 12. We are hoping that the bill will be introduced in thissession," Ramesh said. The draft bill was placed in public domain for consultations last month. "Somechanges over and above in the bill on the website have been made," Ramesh said. Ramesh said several

suggestions have been received for tightening the definition of public purpose to remove scope of itsmisuse. He said "land for railways, highways, ports, power and irrigation purposes for use by governmentor public sector companies" has been included in the definition of public purpose. The minister said theconsent of at least 80 percent of project-affected people is needed if land is acquired in public interest bygovernment where the benefits largely accrue to the general public or is acquired by the government orpublic sector companies for infrastructure or urbanisation projects. Consent of at least 80 percent ofproject affected people is also needed if land is acquired in public interest for private companies forproduction of goods for provision of public services. Ramesh said the bill will apply to all cases of landacquisition where before the date of commencement of the act, "the award has not been made under theLand Acquisition Act, 1894, or, possession of land has not been taken regardless of whether award hasbeen made or not". He said special benefits under rehabilitation and resettlement available to theScheduled Tribes have been extended to the Scheduled Castes. A modification has also been made inrehabilitation and resettlement provisions. These provisions now become applicable if the land purchasedis 100 acres in rural areas and 50 acres in urban areas. The draft bill said these would be applicable ifland acquired exceeds 100 acres. Ramesh said the sum to be paid by the land acquirer if he is not able toprovide employment has been increased from Rs.2 lakh to Rs.5 lakh. The minister said he had spoken toleaders of political parties and there was almost unanimous support for the bill. He said extensiveconsultations had been held with National Alliance for People's Movements and he had gotrepresentation from CII and FICCI. He said the clause to give retrospective effect to the bill was inspiredby demands from farmers of Uttar Pradesh. The farmers in the state, who had been agitating against theland acquisition policy of Mayawati government, had met the minister earlier this month with theirdemands. The minister said states such as Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal and Kerala had reservationsover the provision in the draft bill which prohibits acquisition of multi-crop irrigated land. "They feel it canbe a restrictive clause. We may improve it," he said. He said the purpose of the bill was to allow for landto be acquired in a transparent manner. (New Kerala 20/8/11)Land Bill to benefit cos building townships & urban projects (4)New Delhi: The government has redefined public purpose in the new Land Acquisition Bill to allowcompanies developing townships and urban projects to be also included in the definition. However, it hasadded a rider that such urban projects should be meant for the purpose of production of goods for publicor providing public services. This keeps open the window for real estate companies to approach the stateor the central government to help them in acquiring land. The changes also take into account the hugerequirement that will be thrown up by the government-owned Delhi Mumbai Corridor IndustrialDevelopment Corporation to acquire land. The changes are part of the amendments to the proposedNational Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011. But for any project even whencategorised for ‘public purpose’ will only go through if 80% of the families affected by the projects acceptthe change in land use. The earlier version of the Bill did not elaborate the meaning of 'public purpose'used for land acquisition. The changes by Jairam Ramesh incorporates the suggestions made by industrybodies CII and FICCI, state governments and civil society organisations. It was put up for responses bythe rural development ministry last month. The key public purpose as per the new Bill would also includeprojects supported by government and public sector companies in the areas of railways, highways, ports,power and irrigation purpose. “The changes have been incorporated in the Bill after getting approval fromthe law ministry and has been sent for inter-ministerial consultation,” Ramesh said on Friday. He said theBill could be introduced in the current season of Parliament. The Bill has also hiked the compensationgiven to project affected people from R2 lakh to R5 lakh when the industry is unable to provideemployment to concerned persons. On the issue of timeline for implementation of the new act whichwould supersede the existing 18 laws such highways, SEZs, defence, railways etc, the new version of Billhas stated that it would be implemented with retrospective effect provided 'the award for land acquired isnot completed or possession of land has not been taken under the existing Land Acqusition Act, 1894'.The modified version of the Bill also made provision of five acre of alternate land to be given to ScheduleCastes & Schedule Tribes 'regardless of loss of land.' And special benetif of Resettlement andRehabilitation would be given to SCs along with STs. While ruling out acquisition of multi-cropped andirrigated land, the bill has allowed private sector companies to buy land directly from farmers and owners.“The Bill does not prohibit private players purchasing land, this law is for land acquisition,” Rameshsaid…. (The Financial Express 20/8/11)

Land issues hit road work (4)Thiruvananthapuram: The delay in land acquisition in certain stretches for road development is affectingwork under the City Roads Improvement Project (CRIP). Work being taken up on a total of 18.62 km, invarious road corridors, is scheduled for completion by September. “We have completed even bitumenworks in 16 km (of the 18.62 km) taken up under the second phase. But the authorities have not handedover land in some critical areas, though the matter was taken up at the highest level,” an official ofTrivandrum Road Development Company Ltd. (TRDCL), the implementing agency of CRIP, told TheHindu. There is delay in handing over land belonging to the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) nearAyurveda College on MG Road. Close to 600 metres of land along the cemetery and Mar Thoma Churchat Pattoor would also be required. Acquisition would also be required for the construction of a flyoveracross the arterial road at Melepazhavangadi and relocation of shops behind the city bus stand at EastFort. The TRDCL had decided not to wait for the handing over of the land in these critical corridors. “Oncethe land is handed over and the utilities shifted, we will take up and complete the remaining work,” theofficial said. Till then, these areas will continue to be bottlenecks in the CRIP corridors. The 260-metrestretch extending from Pazhavangadi to East Fort and the Pulimoodu-Ayurveda College stretch will bethe main bottlenecks on the arterial road. The work on the Pazhavangadi - East Fort stretch can be takenup only after the construction of a flyover at Melepazhavangadi and relocation of traders on the PowerHouse and Thakaraparambu roads. In Corridor III (extending from Museum to Overbridge via BakeryJunction and Thampanoor) the first layer of bitumen laying had been completed till Model SchoolJunction. The work on the footpath and median was nearing completion. Traffic signals had been installedat the Panavila junction. Vehicle movement would be streamlined and medians constructed at theGeneral Hospital junction (in the Airport-Asan Square stretch, Corridor IV). In Corridors V and VI, TRDCLhad decided to complete tarring up to the Parthas junction on the Power House road by the month end.Bitumen work will be completed in the Pattoor-Vanchiyoor stretch and on the West Fort-Sreekanteswaram stretch by August. In the Pattom-Medical College-Ulloor stretch, TRDCL had decidedto complete work in the Pattom-Pottakuzhi section by this month. The Murinjapalam bridge would bedemolished to construct a four-lane bridge. A temporary bridge would be constructed. The 0.36-kmUlloor-Kochulloor road, to be developed under Phase II, is moving slow due to the delay in laying asewage line. In Corridor 10, from Kowdiar to Peroorkada, the authorities had decided to put in placesolar-powered traffic signals at Peroorkada. Work on 41.95 km had been taken up under CRIP — 14.26km in the first phase, 18.62 in the second, and 9.06 km in the final phase. Under phase II, work was takenup on the 0.244-km LMS - Students Centre stretch, 1.35-km Vellayambalam – Sasthamangalam, 2.63-kmLMS – Attakulangara, 2.02-km Museum - Bakery Junction – Thampanoor – Overbridge, 0.87-km Airport-MLA Hostel, 0.54 Vanross Junction - Secretariat west gate, 2.3-km Kowdiar - Pattom, 0.81-km Pattom –Murinjapalam - Medical College - Ulloor, 0.36-km Ulloor - Kochulloor, 2.01-km Kowdiar - Peroorkada,1.43-km Peroorkada - Vazhayila, 1.02-km Attakulangara – Sreevarahom - Eenchakkal, and 2.98-kmMurinjapalam - Poonthi Road - NH Bypass stretches. (The Hindu 21/8/11)Anti-Posco protesters prevent coastal road construction (4)Pradip: After a few days lull, the proposed Posco plant site in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district on Saturdaywitnessed noisy scenes with anti-project activists preventing start of construction of a coastal road.Activists of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) chased a group of people who had been to an areaunder Dhinkia panchayat along the sea for construction of a coastal road. The proposed coastal road isplanned to be laid from the Paradip Oil Refinery to Posco area, the foundation for which was laidyesterday. As the contractor and workers were proceeding to the site during the day, PPSS activistsprotested the move and chased them away, official sources said. The district administration had a toughtime in convincing a large number of protesters who blocked the road at Gadakujanga by erectingbamboo baricades. Like the protests at Gobindpur and Nuagaon, the protestors at Gadakujanga includedwomen and children under the banner of Kunjabehary Anchalik Surakshya Samittee (KASS) since August16. Gadakujanga is one of the three routes to Posco site from Balitutha junction. The other routes throughGobindpur and Nuagaon remained blocked by PPSS and United Action Committee (UAC), a pro-industryoutfit. The district administration along with police force and a magistrate went to Gadakujanga toconvince the protesters to lift the agitation as all works including tree felling, ground levelling and removalof betel vines remained suspended since August 16. “We had discussion with them. We will resume thework at Posco site after convincing the people”, Additional District Magistrate, Paradip, Surajit Das said.Leaders of KASS alleged that police had converted Posco area into their fiefdom through “dagagiri”.

“Unless and until our demands are met we will not allow the administration to undertake work”, they said.(The Hindu 21/8/11)Police rescue three officials held hostage by anti POSCO activists (4)Paradip, Aug 22 : Police today rescued three officials, including a senior POSCO official, held hostage bythe activists of Bhitamati Surakhya Manch (BSM), a local outfit opposing POSCO steel plant and arrestedtwo activists. The anti-posco activists detained Paradip ADM Surjit Das, Special Land Acquisition Officerand POSCO DGM S N Singh near Nuagaon village while they were returning from the proposed poscosites. The local police later rushed to the spot and rescued the officials from the illegal detention by theactivists of Bhitamati Surakhya Manch and arrested two activists. The Special Land Acquisition officerhad lodged an FIR with the Kujanga police station about the illegal detention of the three officials whilethey were discharging their duty. Acting on the FIR, police registered a case and arrested two persons,Paradip SDPO Santanu Dash said. The arrested persons have been identified as Abhaya Rout ofNuagaon village and Sadasiba Das, an SUCI leader. They were produced before the JMFC court ofKujanga under section 143,341,294,353,506, 149 of IPC and section 7 of Criminal Law Amendment Actand later remanded into jail custody. (New Kerala 23/8/11)Supreme Court quashes Uttar Pradesh government's 300 acres land acquisition in Hapur (4)New Delhi, Aug 23 : The Supreme Court today quashed the acquisition by the Mayawati government inUttar Pradesh of 300 acres of land in Hapur district for leather industry. A bench comprising Justices G SSinghvi and H L Dattu declared the acquisition of land illegal holding that the acquisition was not forpublic purpose. The apex court ruled that the land under the Land Acquisition Act can be acquired onlyfor real public purpose. Earlier, counsel for the land owners contended before the court that the land hasbeen acquired for commercial purposes and the public purpose is nothing but a smokescreen to deprivethe land owners of their fertile land which is the only source of their livelihood. The Supreme Court hadpreviously laid emphasis on the overhauling of the century-old Land Acquisition Act, the colonial lawwhich was introduced by the British rulers to exploit the Indians. The Judges had also said that largechunks of land are being acquired to protect and promote the interest of the builders and the land mafia incollusion with the politicians and the bureaucrats. (New Kerala 24/8/11)Singur land vested, not acquired, claims Bengal government (4)Kolkata: The West Bengal government today claimed before the Calcutta High Court that it has vestedthe Singur land and not acquired it. Advocate General Anindya Mitra today submitted before Justice I PMukerji that the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011 provides for vesting of the landand that it has been enacted under Section 18 of the State list. Claiming that it has got nothing to do withthe Land Acquisition Act, 1894, Mitra submitted that it was a separate Act by which the state can vest theland. Replying to the challenge by Tata Motors Ltd of the Singur Act, he submitted that the two acts - theSingur Act and the Land Acquisition Act - were two different subjects of legislation. He submitted that thestate has not acquired the Singur land from TML as claimed by it, but has vested it under the new Act.Mitra submitted that when the Singur Act was made, TML had already abandoned the land where it wasto set up a plant for rolling out Nano cars. The matter would come up for hearing again on Monday.(Hindustan Times 26/8/11)Hooda government on backfoot over land allotment (4)CHANDIGARH: The Congress party touts Haryana as having the best land acquisition policy but someland allotment decisions, especially the charge of showing favours to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust(RGCT), have begun to push the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government on to the backfoot. The CongressledHooda government has been under pressure to defend its decision to allow the lease of around fiveacres of land in Gurgaon's Ullahawas village for a super-specialty eye hospital to be set up by the RGCT,notable among whose trustees are Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi. Thelargesse to the RGCT alone is not in the eye of the storm. There are larger issues. Oppposition partieshere have demanded that Governor Jagannath Pahadia reject an amendment to the Haryana LandCeiling Act by which having land limits for corporate bodies, leading builders, industrial houses,institutions and other categories have been withdrawn retrospectively by the Hooda government. TheIndian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have alleged that the Hoodagovernment is compromising Haryana's interests to play into the hands of corporates and big institutions.

The government's land acquisition policy has been facing opposition from farmers too in Fatehabad,Ambala, Rohtak, Panipat and other districts. However, the biggest heat generated has been over thelease of land to the RGCT. The controversial land falls in the new sectors - 58 to 67 - being developed inGurgaon by the government. A public interest litigation (PIL) filed by 15 villagers of Ullahawas before thePunjab and Haryana High Court earlier this month alleges that "unholy haste" was shown at every(government) level in processing the lease. Cornered on the issue, Hooda told the Haryana assembly thisweek: "The action of the government with regard to the lease to the RGCT is in public interest and inaccordance with the law of the land." He defended his position, saying, "There is no irregularitywhatsoever in the lease and the same has been done in accordance with the Punjab Village CommonLands (Regulation) Act, 1961, and the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Rules, 1964, framedthereunder." However, the opposition is unwilling to accept the argument and is seeking a probe into thewhole affair. "If the RGCT had only social service in mind, it should not have chosen the most expensiveaddress in Haryana (Gurgaon) to set up the eye hospital," senior INLD leader Sher Singh Badshami toldIANS. "It should have gone to backward areas of Mewat or Sirsa to serve people." (NIE 28/8/11)Acquisition of land for sports village notified (4)PANAJI: The state government has initiated land acquisition proceedings to acquire 3,99,729 sq m ofland to set up a 'sports village' in Mandrem for the 36th National Games, 2014. The process to acquirethe land has been notified under sub-section (1) of Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and thedeputy collector and sub-divisional officer (SDO) of Pernem has been appointed to perform the functionsof a collector, North Goa district, under the Act. "A rough plan of the land proposed to be acquired for thesports village is available for inspection in the SDO's office in Pernem for 30 days," a source said. Theissue of the proposed 'sports city' at Dhargalim in Pernem taluka, with some of the infrastructure sought tobe located in Mandrem, had rocked the legislative assembly during the budget session earlier this year.During a heated debate, Mandrem MLA Laxmikant Parsekar, who had tabled the question regarding thesports city, had charged the government of intending to build a resort through the public privatepartnership (PPP) mode under the garb of a sports city. "This is a land scam and it will cause injustice tothe people as they will not benefit from the project," Parsekar had said. While it was pointed out that theaccommodation is envisaged to house players and officials for National Games 2014, Parsekar hadsuggested that they could be accommodated in five star hotels in Bardez. But sports minister Manohar'Babu' Azgaonkar said this part of the taluka has not seen much development and hence he was keen totake the initiative. (Times of India 1/9/11)'No notice needed for possession of Singur land’ (4)Kolkata: The West Bengal government on Thursday told the Calcutta High Court, hearing Tata'schallenge of the Singur Land Act, that the establishment need not give notice for taking possession of thedisputed land. Justice IP Mukerji asked the government counsel if a notice to Tata Motors Limited (TML)was not necessary after the notification of Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, within24 hours of which possession of around 600 acres of land leased to TML was taken by the state. Counselfor the state Saktinath Mukherjee submitted that no such notice was necessary under the Civil ProcedureCode. Mukherjee claimed that the state had such powers and has vested the land as per the Singur Actand that it could take possession of the land any time after the notification. He submitted that TML hadstated in their letter to the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation that it could consider movingout, provided they were compensated. He claimed that lease is a right to enjoy a property and not to justhold on to it. Mukherjee submitted that TML had taken on lease 600 acres of land of the 997 acresacquired for the Nano car project, but shifted to Sanand in Gujarat in October 2008. The matter wasadjourned for the day and would be heard again tomorrow. (Zee News 2/9/11)Cabinet gives nod to land acquisition bill (4)New Delhi: The long-awaited Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Bill, to replace the archaic and muchabused Land Acquisition Act of 1894, was cleared by the cabinet on Monday. The bill will be tabled inParliament on Wednesday. The bill, fast-tracked after violent agitations in Nandigram, Singur and GreaterNoida, is understood to have proposed payment of compensation amounting to four times the market tofarmers losing their land. This marks a dilution of the proposal in an earlier draft to provide six times themarket value. The bill places the bigger onus of acquiring land on companies for their projects. Thegovernment will step in only to acquire the last 20 per cent of land required for a project. This implies

companies needing land will have to first acquire at least 80 per cent of the land their projects require.According top a minister who attended the 90-minute cabinet meeting, the bill provides for a monthlysubsistence allowance of Rs 3,000 for each family in the first year after losing their land, and a monthlyannuity of Rs 2,000 for the next 20 years. Planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwaliatold Financial Chronicle that the current law on land acquisition needed to replaced with a new law thatwas fair in that it must provide appropriate compensation to those who lost their land and livelihood, andat the same time provide reasonable ways to ensure that the objective of economic development was notcompromised. Responding to questions, Ficci secretary-general Rajiv Kumar hopes that the bill took onboard his organisation’s suggestions on simplifying the resettlement and rehabilitation process. “Thecompensation formula was complex and we sought its simplification,” he said. “Also, the point in the draftbill citing that agricultural land could not be acquired was also not feasible as all infrastructure like canalsor roads cannot avoid covering or passing through agriculture land,” Kumar added. CII president BMuthuraman saw several positives in the approved bill with regard to resettlement and rehabilitation. Onthe negative side, he said, it would push up the cost of land acquisition manifold. This may come in theway of industrialisation and economic development, he said. The purpose of the new law to also thatthere is a balanced approach to the question of providing compensation while ensuring the objective ofeconomic development. The draft bill also defines “public purpose” for which land can be acquired and isbelieved to have made it clear that once the land is acquired for a purpose, it cannot be changed. The billwas cleared by cabinet after rural development minister Jairam Ramesh recently had discussions withWest Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who had certain reservations on some of the provisions ofthe bill. There were also reports that agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had some reservations on theissue of compensation. This too appears to have been sorted out.(Financial Chronicle 5/9/11)Land bill prunes NAC price formula (4)New Delhi, Sept. 5: The compensation rate suggested by the National Advisory Council has been prunedin the land acquisition bill, whose draft the cabinet hurriedly approved today, side-stepping severalobjections to try and meet a political timetable set by Rahul Gandhi. The bill will be introduced inParliament on Wednesday, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters. It is likely to go tothe standing committee and be taken up for passage during the winter session. Rahul wants it passedbefore the Uttar Pradesh elections due next summer. The bill compensates rural land-losers at four timesthe market value, defined as the average selling price for a similar type of land in the area. The SoniaGandhi-headed National Advisory Council had suggested the compensation be six times the marketvalue in rural areas. The rate in urban areas will be twice the market value. Ramesh said the states werefree to enact their own land acquisition law on the lines of the central law. Bengal chief minister MamataBanerjee had told him on Saturday that the Centre should allow the states this leeway. The bill acceptsanother of Mamata’s demands: that any acquired plot that remains unutilised for 10 years can be put in aland bank, to be later used for any purpose the state government deems fit. Ramesh thanked Mamata forher “full support” to the bill. Sources said that at the cabinet meeting, which lasted more than two hours,several ministers had objected to certain provisions that they felt would discourage industry and affectinvestments. The critics, mostly former chief ministers familiar with the nitty-gritty of land acquisition, weretold the standing committee would later look into these points but the bill had to be tabled this session.Among the contentious provisions was the annuity clause saying each land-loser family must be paid Rs2,000 every month for 20 years. Sharad Pawar felt this would be unpalatable for industry. The otherobjectors included Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Veerappa Moily and Virbhadra Singh. Theirarguments were not rejected out of hand because the government understands that certain parts of thedraft may need to be tailored. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the bill would be discussed at theNational Development Council, which has all the chief ministers as its members, in mid-October. Rameshhad last month written to all the chief ministers seeking their comments on the bill, but only a few haveresponded. On a suggestion from states such as Punjab and Haryana, the provision banning acquisitionof multi-crop land has been dropped. The bill says the compensation will be paid to land-losers withinthree months of acquisition, and the resettlement and rehabilitation benefits will be given within 18months. There will be no forcible displacement of families from project areas before the rehabilitationcolonies are completed. After acquisition, the purpose of land-use cannot be changed. This will checkpractices such as acquiring land for industry, say, and using it for other purposes such as buildinghousing complexes. The bill, which seeks to replace the land acquisition act of 1894, includes a provisionto apply the law with retrospective effect. “The new law will apply to all cases of land acquisition where

the award (compensation) has not been made so far under the previous law, or the possession of landhas not been made regardless of whether the award has been paid or not,” a ministry source said.(Telegraph 6/9/11)Land acquisition bill may nibble at agriculture land (4)Mumbai | Agency: DNA: The Union cabinet’s approval of the Land Acquisition Act 2011, which has beenpursued on the lines of the Maharashtra model, runs the risk of causing the shrinking of agriculture fields.The biggest concern is that participation of the government to facilitate land acquisition for over 100 acrescould be exploited by private players. The Centre was under pressure from various state governments,including Maharashtra, to streamline the land acquisition as it received major setback in special economiczones (SEZs) following protest from farmers in Raigad district. Although the Land Acquisition Relief andRehabilitation Bill 2011 still requires two-thirds endorsement of both Houses of Parliament before itsimplementation, it has evoked sharp reactions, both within the state government and non-governmentorganisations championing the cause of farmers. A senior Congress minister on condition of anonymitytold DNA, “Notwithstanding the good intentions to protect the right of the land owners in the bill, I fear thehigher compensation package which has been made mandatory for land price would promote marginaland small farmers to sell off their land. This could be the beginning of a dangerous trend leading to thenext generation shifting from agriculture to service sectors across rural Maharashtra.” Kishore Tiwari ofVidarbha Jan Andolan said, “The land acquisition act is going to be detrimental to the interests of farmersin the cotton growing belt of Vidarbha.” Ulka Mahajan of National Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM)added, “Resettlement and rehabilitation of the people displaced remains the biggest concern.” (DNA7/9/11)Land acquisition: Farmers give memo to collector (4)VADODARA: Farmers of around 10 villages in Vadodara district on Thursday submitted a memorandumto the district collector over the land acquisition for the expansion of the national highway eight. Thefarmers are opposing the process and the quantum of compensation that they are being offered for theirland. The farmers have demanded that they should be given compensation in accordance with theNational Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy (NRRP), 2007. Presently they are being givencompensation under the National Highways Act. Besides raising the demands regarding thecompensation, the farmers have sought several changes in the land acquisition policy. The memorandumstates that on the issue of giving a solacium to farmers, the National Highways Act was skewed againstthem. It had no such provision whereas the Railway Amendment Act, 2008, and the Land Acquisition Act,1894, had the necessary provisions. The Ekta Gramin Praja Vichar Manch has also stated that besidessolacium a major issue was that of small plots of land after acquisition that were left with the farmers.Cultivation is not viable on such small plots. The organisation has also pointed out lacunae in the way inwhich prices for land were decided. The farmers had assembled in the Kothi compound here at noon onThursday. They conducted a short rally to reach the collector's office and submit the memorandum there.(Times of India 8/9/11)20 villagers arrested at Posco site (4)Kendrapada: Tension gripped the site of the proposed Posco steel project in Jagatsinghpur district onFriday after 20 anti-land acquisition villagers were arrested on charges of preventing entry of officials andpolice into the villages. Police also dismantled two wooden barricades built by the villagers to bar theentry of "outsiders". "We arrested Niranjan Swain, Pravat Palei, Achuti Das, Srimanta Parida, BhamaraRout, Tushar Nayak , Narayan Parida and others at Nuagaon and at Gadakujang on the charges ofobstructing the entry of officials and police by constructing wooden gates," said the sub-divisional policeofficer (Paradip) Santanu Das. "The deputy general manager of Posco, S N Singh, along with eight treecutters were held hostage by anti-land acquisition villagers at Nuagaon for five hours on Monday. Twoweeks ago, the villagers had detained the additional district magistrate (Paradip), Surjit Das, and thedistrict land acquisition officer, Nrusingh Swain for four hours. Police had rushed to the village andrescued the officials," the SDPO said. Six platoons of police have been deployed at Gadakujang andNuagaon areas in order to check any untoward incident, he added. "The efforts of the districtadministration to expedite land acquisition for the Posco steel project proposed to be set up in the grampanchayats of Gadakujang, Nuagaon and Dhinkia have turned out to be a dampener as both the pro-Posco and anti-land acquisition groups joined hands to prevent the land acquisition by the authority on

Friday after police arrested some villagers," said Bhaskar Swain, the sarpanch of Nuagaon. "Manyvillagers had agreed to give their lands in lieu of proper compensation. But the authorities are yet toannounce a proper compensation package, including jobs for the displaced persons in the proposed steelplant site. Therefore, we are hell-bent on opposing the proposed land acquisition and tree cutting works inour areas," said Nirvaya Samantray, the general secretary of United Action Committee (a pro-industrialoutfit). "We will soon discuss land acquisition with the locals and seek their cooperation before goingahead with the tree felling and boundary construction work in the proposed project area. We have alreadyaxed more than 30,000 trees and about three lakhs will be felled shortly," said the Paradip ADM. (Timesof India 10/9/11)Land Acquisition Bill referred to Standing Committee (4)NEW DELHI: The much-talked about Land Acquisition Bill has been referred to the ParliamentaryStanding Committee on Rural Development which has been asked to give its report within three months."...the Speaker, Lok Sabha has referred the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011,as introduced in Lok Sabha, to the Standing Committee on Rural Development for examination and reportwithin three months," the Lok Sabha Secretariat said. The bill that seeks to replace a more than centuryold Act was introduced by Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh during the Monsoon Session ofParliament which concluded last week. Ramesh had met Chairperson of the Standing Committee onRural Development, Sumitra Mahajan, for consultation over the bill. (Economic Times 14/9/11)Hearing on Singur compensation (4)KOLKATA: Calcutta High Court on Wednesday asked advocate general Anindya Mitra to submit byThursday whether the state is ready to compensate Tata Motors in the Singur case under provisions ofthe Land Acquisition Act. But Tata Motors' counsel Samaraditya Pal said the court could not fixcompensation in this case. The court was hearing Tata Motors' writ petition challenging the constitutionalvalidity of the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011. The state has concluded itsargument and it was Pal's turn to reply. Pal argued that the 2011 Act has no provision for payment ofcompensation. He further stated that main intention of the state was not to pay any money to TataMotors. He also said the company invested a huge amount on the project. But now, the state was tryingnot to pay the money. "Why did the company hold on to the land after shifting the project in 2008?" thecourt asked Pal. The counsel replied that under the lease agreement the state could take back the landonly if the company failed to complete the project and that too after serving proper notice. But by enactingthe Singur Act, the state had taken back the land. So, there was no harm in holding onto the land. Thecourt also asked Pal that in a letter dated September 28, 2010, the company stated that it shifted theproject and removed its plant and machinery. Pal said the court can ignore the letter as it was just acorrespondence. The court sought Pal's reaction if compensation was paid. Pal said since there was nospecific time for payment of compensation, it will take 20 long years for the company to receive themoney. At that point, the advocate general said if the court fixed a four month deadline for payingcompensation, the state will be ready to pay the amount within that time. Pal also submitted that in caseof compensation, many provisions should be enshrined in the law. But the 2011 Act had no suchprovisions. So the court cannot fix compensation, he argued. (Times of India 15/9/11)Fresh roadblocks in ring road project (4)JAIPUR: The new Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Bill 2011 might pose freshroadblocks for the ring road project. As the state government has not taken possession of the acquiredland for the 47-km proposed road project, the Ring Road Sangarsh Samiti leaders is all set to organisecamps in villages to educate farmers about the benefits after the implementation of the Bill and why theyshould not to give possession of their lands. The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on September 7.Virendra Katewa, secretary, Ring Sangarsh Samiti, said, "We have printed around 3,000 pamphletsenumerating all the benefits the farmers will get after the implementation of the Bill. The Samiti will alsoform a team of 50 "educated" farmers and will organise camps in 47 villages affected and enlighten themabout the benefits." In (LARR) Bill 2011, it is mentioned under Section 24(2), that if the farmers have notgiven possession of their acquired land after the Bill is enacted the state government will have to pay thecompensation according to the new (LARR), 2011 Act. "The farmers are fighting for rights for past sixyears. We will motivate the farmers not give possession unless the act is implemented. Once it is inexistence the state will be forced to pay compensation accordingly," said Katewa. Also, in (LARR) Bill

2011 it has been mentioned under Clause 26, that the compensation for land acquisition in rural areas,the state government has to give four times the market value for land acquired in rural areas and twicethe market value in urban areas. The Samiti leader explained that after this the farmers will receivedouble the District Lease Committee rate and 100% solarium. The compensation for house structures,tubewells will be double the BSR rates. Ring Road Sangrash Samiti president Badri Prasad said, "Theland of around 1,500 farmers has been completely acquired. That compensation will benefit a lot." The billproposes the entitlements to each livelihood loser. According to it, a job to the family member, or apayment of Rs 5 lakh upfront, or a monthly annuity totalling Rs 24,000 per year for 20 years withadjustment for inflation - the option from these three choices will be the legal right of the affectedlivelihood-losing family, not the land acquirer. (Times of India 15/9/11)State ready to pay compensation (4)KOLKATA: The state government on Thursday admitted before Justice I P Mukerji of theCalcutta highcourt that in Singur casethey are ready to pay compensation to the Tata Motors according to the LandAcquisition Act, 1894. The Tata Motros, however, is not ready to accepted the government's offer. Thecourt on Wednesay asked the advocate general Anindya Mitra to submit the view of the governmentabout the payment of compensation. The court hearing the petition of TaTa Motors challenging theconstitutional validity of the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011. When Mitra said thatthe state was ready to pay the compensation under the 1894 Act, in terms of the principle laid down bythe sections 23 and 24 of the Land Acquisition Act. It was said that Hooghly district judge, whiledetermining the compensation considered under the 1894 Act as well as the present market value of theconstructions made by the TaTa Motors in the Singur Land and also the letter of TaTa Motors datedseptember 28, 2010 where they written that after getting sutable compensation they can quit the land.Tata counsel Samaraditya said there is no mention of leasehold value of the land as it is more valuable.Mitra countered the issue by saying that was not mentioned in September 28 letter. Pal opposed theproposal on the ground that 90 years leasehold value of the land is 500% higher than the straucturestanding at the Singur land. It was also argued that in 2011 Act there is no provision of appeal againstthe District Judge's decision of compensation and on that absent of provision of appeal, the act should bedeclared ultrvires to the constitution, Pal added. (Times of India 16/9/11)‘Land Acquisition Bill benefits realtors’ (4)Bangalore, Sep 16, DHNS: The Land Acquisition Bill is about real estate and not really about farmers ordevelopment, said P Sainath, a journalist. He was delivering the Brother Jose Vetticattil Memorial Lectureon ‘Rural India After Two Decades of Liberalisation’ organised by Functional Vocational Training andResearch Society on Friday. “The focus of the Land Acquisition Bill is about making it easier to acquiresingle crop land as opposed to multicrop land. But the poorest of the poor who own land hardly have anymulticrop land. Dalits and Adivasis will be the first ones to lose their land and this Bill will only make iteasier,” he said. Sainath also said that big companies like Tatas obtained land at throwaway prices andkept it unused for years without starting any project, and later sold it to other companies at exorbitantrates. Citing the example of Posco in Orissa, he said the company had itself declared that the iron oremined would be exhausted in 30 years, by which time, the topsoil would have been removed withoutleaving any chance for cultivation. “We are allowing private corporations to plunder our naturalresources,” he said. (Deccan Herald 16/9/11)HC concludes hearing of challenge to Singur Act (4)Kolkata, September 16, 2011: Tata Motors Ltd and the West Bengal government were directed by theCalcutta High Court on Friday to file written notes of argument by September 20 as hearing on thechallenge of the Singur Act by TML concluded on Friday. Justice I P Mukerji is expected to deliver thejudgement in the case filed by TML challenging the constitutionality of Singur Land Rehabilitation andDevelopment Act 2011, before the Puja holidays, which begins from October one. The hearing concludedafter TML counsel S Pal finished his submissions in reply to the arguments by the State against itsposition on the constitutionality of the Act. TML opposed the High Court’s initiative on compensation to itfor the government vesting land at Singur that was leased to the company. The TML counsel disagreedwith the proposal and informed Justice Mukerji that there was no mention of the leasehold value of theland in the government’s proposal which could be 500 per cent higher than that of the structureconstructed at Singur. The State government, on the other hand, said that the Hooghly district judge

would determine the compensation considering the principle laid down under section 23 and 24 of theLand Acquisition Act 1894. TML has already taken away all machinery from Singur to Sanand in Gujaratfor its Nano car plant. (The Hindu 16/9/11)SmartCity site gets SEZ status (4)KOCHI: It is good news for the proposed SmartCity Kochi as the Board of Approval (BoA) of the UnionCommerce Ministry has sanctioned Special Economic Zone status for the remaining 114 acres of the total246 acres allotted for the project. The status is expected to be conferred within a month. The site's 132acres was given the status in March this year. The board of directors of SmartCity will meet next week todecide the next course of action as this decision on SEZ has given clarity to the whole process. Therewas a concern that a single SEZ status would not be awarded to the project site which was divided intotwo by a water body. (Times of India 20/9/11)Policy pill to pep up SEZs (4)Calcutta, Sept. 21: The commerce ministry is planning to revamp its policy on special economic zonesand will come out with a draft proposal in two to three weeks. “At a meeting with the principal secretaryand state government officials, we took a good hard look at the current SEZ policy and rules that wereformulated six years ago. Since then, things have changed significantly. Land acquisition has become ahot issue. We’ll come out with a draft in two to three weeks to float ideas about how we can change theway SEZs operate. After receiving feedback from all stakeholders, we may take another three-fourmonths to formulate a new policy, and, if be needed, amend the SEZ Act 2005,” commerce secretaryRahul Khullar said at an event of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations. The draft will haveproposals on the minimum land requirement, inclusion of two sectors in one SEZ and extension ofbenefits of specific export promotion schemes currently available to non-SEZ exporters. It will also dealwith issues on dilution and transfer of equity by the developer and revise guidelines for the generationand distribution of power in the special zones. Only 143 SEZs were operational though 584 proposalshave got formal approvals. Exports from these 143 SEZs grew 23 per cent to Rs 72,255 crore for theApril-June period this year compared with last year. SEZs, which account for 36 per cent of the totalexports, have come under pressure after the levy of an 18.5 per cent minimum alternate tax (MAT) and a15 per cent dividend distribution tax (DDT) in the Finance Bill for 2011-12. The Direct Tax Code alsoseeks to dilute the incentives offered to SEZs by bringing them under MAT and DDT and replacing profitlinkedtax benefits with investment-linked sops. At present, SEZ units get 100 per cent tax exemption onprofits earned for the first five years and a 50 per cent exemption for the next five years. There is another50 per cent exemption on reinvested profits for the next five years. Developers also get 100 per cent taxexemption on profits for 10 years which they can choose to invoke within the first 15 years of operation.(Telegraph 22/9/11)Land acquisition bill may make affordable housing only a dream:Study (4)New Delhi, Sep 22: The new land acquisition bill, if passed by Parliament in its present form, will increaseprices of flats by up to 50 per cent, making affordable housing "only a dream" for the middle classsegment, according to a study. Under the proposed policy, the Assocham study said the developmentauthorities will be forced to hike the land rates substantially, pushing up the prices of 'Janta' flats, 2 BHK,3 BHK and 4 BHK apartments in Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad. "If this bill isimplemented, then housing in India will become much expensive than even developed countries," thechamber said. Moreover, the industry body said the provision of land acquisition with consent of 80 percent of landowners is a welcome step but paying compensation two times in urban areas and four timesin rural areas is only going to increase the cost of setting up the industrial establishments, infrastructuralprojects and townships. This proposed policy will also adversely affect the real estate development asadditional burden of land cost will make housing expensive. It said the land in open market "too wouldbecome expensive"."So just to benefit a few people, the burden of excessive cost of production anddevelopment will be borne by all the countrymen. Thus, this needs to be looked into rationally," thechamber said. (New Kerala 23/9/11)20 injured in clash at Posco site (4)

Paradip, Sept. 26: A violent clash erupted today between a group of workers belonging to a privateconstruction firm and those opposed to the Posco steel plant on the periphery of the project site. Theincident left at least 20 persons injured as crude bombs were used in the battle. Confirming the incident,superintendent of police, Jagatsinghpur, S. Devidatta Singh said: “A clash took place today nearAbhayachandrapur over road-laying work. But we are yet to receive any complaint in this regard. We aretold that some persons were injured in the clash. However, as a precautionary measure, armed policedeployment has been made at the site.” Eye-witnesses said trouble started as workers of ParadipParivaran Nigam, a private firm engaged in laying the coastal road from the Paradip oil refinery projectsite to the proposed Posco steel project, resumed work today. Construction of the road had been stalledfor a couple of months following protest from anti-Posco protesters. As soon as the road-laying workresumed today, activists of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samity (PPSS), mostly from Dhinkia village, offeredresistance. This sparked off a scuffle between the two sides and it later turned into a violent clash. “Lathiwieldingworkers chased away the protesting villagers. Angry local residents from Dhinkia rushed to thespot and launched a retaliatory attack. When angry local residents lobbed hand-made bombs at theworkers, they beat a hasty retreat by suspending road-laying work,” said an eye-witness requestinganonymity. The anti-Posco outfit described the attack as an “administration-sponsored ploy to terrorisethe peace-loving people”. President of PPSS Abhaya Sahu said: “Crime mongers from Paradip werehired by the private firm to trample people’s democratic movement against the steel project. Everythingwas done at the behest of the civil and police administration. The police had prior knowledge about theplanned attack on the people. The police were not far away from where the incident took place but theyremained silent as anti-socials went about beating innocent villagers.” Despite repeated efforts, the ownerand officials of the private construction firm could not be contacted for comments. (Telegraph 27/9/11)SC refuses expunction of remarks against NBA (4)New Delhi, Oct 2 (PTI): The Supreme Court has refused to expunge its adverse remarks made in ajudgement against Medha Patkar-led Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) for misleading it on the issue ofland acquisition for Omkareshwar Dam project in Madhya Pradesh. The NBA had moved applications forexpunging certain adverse remarks made by the apex court in the May 11 judgement lashing out at theNGO for making false statements in the affidavit for securing favourable order. The apex court had alsoasked other courts across the country to be cautious in examining NBA's petitions. However, the apexcourt, which examined the NBA's applications for expunging the remarks, disposed them of by modifyingits observations. A bench comprising justices J M Panchal, Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan said, "Wereach the inescapable conclusion that the NBA has not acted with a sense of responsibility and not takenappropriate pleadings as required in law." "However, in a PIL, the court has to strike a balance betweenthe interests of the parties. The court has to take into consideration the pitiable condition of oustees, theirpoverty, inarticulateness, illiteracy, extent of backwardness, unawareness also. "It is desirable that infuture the court must view presentation of any matter by the NBA with caution and care insisting onproper pleadings, disclosure of full facts truly and fairly and should insist for an affidavit of someresponsible person in support of facts contained therein," the bench said in its 14-page order. The benchmodified its remarks in which it had said in case it (court) has any doubt, it could "refuse to entertain theNBA". The bench considered the "remorse" expressed by the counsel on behalf of the NBA that "it oughtto have acted with more responsibility". (Deccan Herald 2/10/11)Katta cleared 325-acre land in four days (4)BANGALORE: Former industries minister Katta Subramanya Naidu was apparently in a tearing hurry toensure that about 325 acres of land near Devanahalli was granted to an industry for establishing IT/ITESSEZ. The minister ensured that the application for land was processed in just four days! It did not matterthat the then industries minister himself was sitting in New Delhi. He faxed notings and instructions andhad all the roadblocks to the grant of land removed. According to documents filed by Lokayukta policebefore the special court hearing the alleged land scam, the entire affair was orchestrated by Naidu andhis son Jagadish for a bribe of Rs 87 crore. Incorporated in June 2004, Itasca Software Development PvtLimited, the company that benefited by the series of irregularities committed by then industries ministerNaidu, claimed to be in the field of development and exports of software and other-related activities. But ithad no office and it provided the residence address of one its directors, S V Srinivas, as the officeaddress. The company neither had expertise nor prior experience in the field. With an authorized capitalof Rs 10 lakh, it had no financial capacity to invest Rs 1,130 crore in 325 acres of land in the SEZ. Itasca

had filed the application for the land with the Karnataka Udyog Mitra (KUM) on August 24, 2006. The landsought, however, overlapped with the area earmarked for a project of Shapoorji Pallonji & Co Ltd,Mumbai. Itasca's application had to be cleared by the State High Level Clearance Committee (SHLCC)headed by the chief minister with the industries minister as the vice-chairman. As the SHLCC wasmeeting on August 28, 2006, then industries minister Katta Subramanya Naidu instructed KUM toprocess the Itasca plea and place it before the meeting as an additional agenda to the Pallonji proposal.Objections that it had not been screened and needed detailed examination was overruled by the ministerthrough fax. At the SHALCC, decision on the Pallonji proposal was deferred, while the Itasca proposalwas approved. After he had his way and got all required clearances for Itasca getting the land, Kattaordered for notifying only 450.24 acres at Bandikodigehalli near Devahanalli. The compensation fixed wasbetween Rs 31 lakh and Rs 40 lakh. As both Katta and his son were aware of the proposal of thegovernment for notifying the lands, they had purchased about 15.08 acres in the village. The lands werein the name of Katta's son and wife Sowbhagya. While drawing compensation, signatures of villagerswere forged and money withdrawn. In respect of 165 villagers who had not given their consent, Rs 3.02crore was withdrawn. For 376 cheques, only 46 transaction IDs (meaning 46 persons) were allotted. Insome instances, the cheques were withdrawn in the name of dead persons. Most of the cheques weresigned, though many of the villagers were illiterates and used thumb impression. (Times of India 3/10/11)What lies ahead: TOI conclave discusses land row (4)NOIDA: Even as the Allahabad High Court has reserved its judgment in the land acquisition cases filed byfarmers of Noida and Greater Noida in the Gautam Budh Nagar district, deliberations by the variousstakeholders involved at a recent conclave looked at what lay ahead of the land row. Held at theRadisson Hotel in Noida on Saturday by the Times of India group in association with the Investors Clinic,the subject of discussion 'Noida unraveled - The road ahead' provided for a power-packed debate to clearthe cloud of uncertainties being faced by not only the development authorities but also the investors andend users. With Noida and Greater Noida being in the eye of a land acquisition storm for the past fivemonths, the main question asked was whether the land row would be resolved and if the governmentwould be able to set the pace for further urban development and growth. Another query posed waswhether the concept of 'affordable housing' floated by the developers in the Noida Extension-GreaterNoida area had been lost forever. While farmers of nearly 63 villages have challenged the acquisition of3,000 hectares, over a hundred builders have their projects coming up in the area and lakhs ofhomebuyers have put in their hard-earned money. Investments worth Rs 16,000 crore are also at stake.Currently, development in the area seems to have come to a standstill with investors and homebuyersvary of putting in their money, while banks having stopped disbursing loans, but a ray of hope came froman assurance that within the next few months things would get stabilized. "We are hoping for somereprieve in the next 2-3 months when we expect matters to settle down and issues to get ironed out for allthe parties involved," said Balwindar Kumar, chairman and CEO of Noida Authority. "Both Noida andGreater Noida, and now the Yamuna Expressway, are evolving cities with world class infrastructure.Shifting land use from agriculture to industry is the established process of civilization and we cannotafford to ignore its importance," he said. With all eyes turned to the new land acquisition bill, participantsof the seminar conferred on the necessity of putting into place renewed policies whereby farmland couldbe acquired and converted at fair and equitable means besides the need to think town planning conceptsanew. "The farmer definitely needs to be compensated adequately for his land and we are making effortstowards the same," Kumar said. "We hope that the new land policy will address the shortcomings of theprevious Act and facilitate the real estate industry as well as benefit all stakeholders," he added. Whilemany homebuyers affected by the land crisis have adopted a wait-and-watch policy wondered about thefate of their homes, prospective investors and property pundits claimed that housing demand in the areahad declined considerably. "We are hoping for some reprieve from the high court," said Mohit Arora,director Supertech. On being quizzed whether the 'affordable housing dream' was shattered, Aroraanswered that it "would depend on the demand for housing and the land acquisition rates in thefuture".The conclave ended with suggestions for curing the land acquisition malaise permanently anddealing with the farmers' expectation, which seem to be growing by the day. Justice (Retd) RajeshTandon said, "There is a need for the government to act quickly to honour their agreements with the landholders." "An arbitrator can be appointed for settlement and fixing a fair price for land holdings to avoidthe current land crisis-like situations," said Satish Janmeda, an investor." (Times of India 3/10/11)

Govt cannot change purpose of acquired land: Supreme Court (4)Land acquired by the government or its instrumentalities for a specific public purpose cannot be changedand transferred to private individuals or corporate bodies, the Supreme Court has held. A bench ofJustice GS Singhvi and Justice Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya said though the government enjoyspower of "eminent domain" to compulsorily acquire any land for public purpose, yet,it cannot legitimiseany fraudulent act of the authorities. "The courts have repeatedly held that in exercise of its power ofeminent domain, the State can compulsorily acquire land of the private persons but this propositioncannot be over-stretched to legitimise a patently illegal and fraudulent exercise undertaken for deprivingthe landowners of their constitutional right to property with a view to favour private persons," JusticeSinghvi writing the judgment said. The apex court passed the judgment while dismissing the appeal ofcertain corporate houses challenging the Karnataka High Court's decision to quash the acquisitionproceedings of over 37 acres of land in south Bangalore. The Karnataka State Tourism DevelopmentCorporation had acquired the private land through the State Government for the ostensible purpose of aGolf-cum-Hotel Resort. However, instead of constructing the resort, it chose to transfer the land to aprivate real estate developer for a group housing project; and also other corporate houses. Aggrieved bythe decision, the private land owners approached the high court which quashed the acquisitionproceedings and directed that the land be restored to the original owners. The land owners were alsoasked to return the compensation received by them at the time of acquisition. The corporate housesappealed in the apex court. Upholding the high court order, the apex court said the corporation had madea false projection to the state government that land was needed for execution of tourism related projects.The bench said the minutes of the corporation's meeting showed that it did not have the required fundsfor the project and instead wanted to transfer the land to a private builder, Dayananda Pai. "TheManaging Director of the Corporation candidly admitted that the Corporation did not have the requisitefinances to pay for the acquisition of land and that Dayananda Pai, who had already entered intoagreements with some of the landowners for purchase of land, was prepared to provide funds subject tocertain conditions including transfer of 12 acres 34 guntas land to him for house building project. "After 8months, the Corporation passed resolution for transfer of over 12 acres land to Dayananda Pai. TheCorporation also transferred two other parcels of land in favour of Bangalore International Centre andM/s. Universal Resorts Limited. "These transactions reveal the true design of the officers of thecorporation, who first succeeded in persuading the state gGovernment to acquire huge chunk of land fora public purpose and then transferred major portion of the acquired land to private individual andcorporate entities by citing poor financial health of the corporation as the cause for doing so," the benchsaid. Therefore, it said, the corporation did not have the jurisdiction to transfer the land acquired for apublic purpose to the companies and thereby allow them to bypass the provisions of Land Acquisition Act."The diversification of the purpose for which land was acquired under Section 4(1) read with Section 6clearly amounted to a fraud on the power of eminent domain," the bench said. (DNA 5/10/11)Goa PAC looking into irregularities in land allotment (4)Panaji, October 07, 2011: After the illegal mining mess, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Goaassembly is investigating alleged irregularities committed by former chief minister Pratapsingh Rane andhis government in the allotment of land for Special Economic Zone (SEZ) promoters in the state. PACchairman Manohar Parrikar said today that at the face of it, the scam is worth around Rs 51 Crore but itcould be much more. PAC has got on record figure of Rs 51 crore. We are collecting the information. Thescam might be much bigger, he said. Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) report had pointed out that GoaIndustrial Development Corporation (GIDC) had done a sale deed with four SEZ allottes for more areathan approved by the board at lesser rates resulting in the loss of Rs 39.47 crore. Parrikar said that GIDCis on record to state that it had given relaxations to SEZ promoters on the instructions of the then chiefminister (Pratapsingh Rane) and industries minister (Luizinho Faleiro). "CAG has clearly pointed out thatthe land was allotted without following proper procedure," he said. Parrikar said that the land at Vernaindustrial estate was quoted at Rs 750 per square meter for the SEZ developers during the GIDC boardmeeting. "But when actual allotment was done, it was given at Rs 600 per square meter," he added. Goagovernment had formulated an SEZ policy in 2007 but later withdrew it in June 2009. Three SEZs werenotified by the Union ministry, which were later sent for denotification by the state government. (TheHindustan Times 7/10/11)Assocham for state's role in land acquisition for industry (4)

Kolkata, Oct 9 : Disagreeing with the West Bengal government's view that it has no role to play in landacquisition for industrial projects, industry body Assocham Sunday said if the governemnt stays away,future investment would be impacted. "The government has an important role to play in facilitating landacquisition. It cannot shy away. If the government says it cannot get involved at all, then future investmentwill be affected," said Assocham chairman (east) Sunil Kanoria. Soon after coming to power in May, theTrinamool Congress regime led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee formed a two-member expertcommittee that recommended that the government will have no role to play in land acquisition for privateindustry and investors will have to acquire land directly from owners. Contending that the anti-landacquisition agitation against automakers Tata Motors' small car Nano had sent a wrong message to theworld, Assocham secretary-general D.S. Rawat said the right sort of atmosphere has to be created forinvestment to pour in. Banerjee had a led a sustained farmers' protest against the then Left Frontgovernment's land acquisition for the Nano project in Hooghly district's Singur which ultimately forced theautomobile giant to shift the factory to Gujarat. Rawat said the issue will be deliberated upon and ablueprint for the state's all round development released in an investors' summit "Land of Opportunities" tobe held here Oct 15. (New Kerala 9/10/11)Arundhati: Joint fight against forced land acquisition (4)KUSSA (MOGA): The fight of Punjab farmers and labourers facing forced land acquisition got anunexpected boost, with Booker winner Arundhati Roy advocating a joint struggle to stop this, whether it isin Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bengal or Punjab. Talking to The Times of India, Roy also condemned thecane charge on farmers at Gobindpura village. Arundhati said she has come to know that some womenresisting forced acquisition have sustained injuries. ''I salute their spirit.'' She also stressed on the need toorganize a renewed and sustained struggle for ensuring equality, irrespective of caste, creed andfinancial position, to get rid of the ills afflicting civil society. Roy, who had come to this dusty village to paytributes to eminent playwright Gursharan Singh, said, ''He fought all his life against imperialistic forceswhich can only be defeated by joint efforts.''Referring to usurping of vast natural resources bymultinational companies, Arundhati said if the poorest people in the world, residing in Orissa andChhattisgarh could keep the big companies at bay for more than five years, why can't those in otherplaces (states) do so. She said the world takes inspiration from poor people's fight against the mighty.Arundhati, her Hindi peppered with English words, said, ''Gursharan showcased people's anger againstanti-people regimes. There is dire need for thousands of small stones (people) to join together to form aformidable wall, which could not be torn apart by big concerns or regimes. And writers, people in art andculture could work as cement in the building of this wall.''She said lakhs of people from Punjab to Kerala,and Chhattisgarh to Orissa, are undertaking different struggles for their survival and well-being. But abigger, collective fight is needed. Roy pointed out that Punjab has 30% dalit population, out of which and90% are landless, but the leftist forces have failed to fight for their cause altogether. Earlier, paying richtributes to Gursharan Singh, Roy, Sangeet Natak Akademi and Sahitya Akademi award winnerplaywrights Atamjit, Ajmer Aulakh, Gursharan's daughter Areet, Desh Bhagat Yadgar hall committeemember Amolak Singh, playwrights Kewal Dhaliwal, Sahib Singh and others stressed on the need tocarry forward Gursharan's legacy. (Times of India 11/10/11)Parliamentary panel seeks public opinion on land bill (4)New Delhi, Oct 14: The parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development headed by BharatiyaJanata Party's Lok Sabha member Sumitra Mahajan has invited public opinion on the Land Acquisition,Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011. The bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha Sep 7 was referred tothe committee by Speaker Meira Kumar. The panel invited public opinion Thursday. The draft bill givescompensation for land at four times the market value in rural areas. Addressing the concerns ofAgriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, the draft bill lays a condition that while not more than five percentmulti-cropped land can be acquired in a district, an equivalent wasteland would have to be developed foragriculture purposes. But this clause shall not apply to linear projects like railways, higways, power linesand irrigation canals. The draft bill has also tightened definition of "public purpose" and made provision of"eminent domain" - meaning land acquisition would require prior consent of 80 percent "project affected"people where the government acquires land for transferring it to private companies for public purpose.The central law would override existing state laws on land acquisition. The draft bill providescompensation not only to land owners but people who lose their livelihood because of land acquisition. A

new clause bans change of purpose in the land use plan submitted and facilitates transfer of landacquired back to the state government's land bank if not used for 10 years. While there would be socialimpact assessment to ensure transparency, the draft bill also has fixed three month's time for payment ofcompensation. According to the rural development ministry, the bill seeks to ensure a humane,participatory, and transparent process for land acquisition for industrialisation, infrastructure developmentand urbanisation. The committee has invited views/suggestions from individuals, experts, professionals,organisations and associations interested in the subject. (New Kerala 14/10/11)PM to meet chief ministers on land reforms (4)Agartala: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to meet 10 Chief Ministers this month to finalise astrategy to deal with agrarian and land reforms, an official said here on Sunday. A National Council forLand Reforms (NCLR), under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, was set up earlier this year with theChief Ministers of 10 states, the official said. Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh,Rajasthan, Orissa, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh are expected to attendthe meeting. The official added: "Central ministers of rural development, agriculture, environment andforest, Panchayati Raj and tribal affairs are also members of the council." He said the meeting wasscheduled to be held in New Delhi on October 28 and was "crucial in view of the Central government'smove to amend the contentious land acquisition act". The meeting would suggest possible action planand suitable measures to deal with the problems of land acquisition, land reforms, agricultural andfarmers' vital problems across the country, he said. (Zee News 16/10/11)Maharashtra plans to acquire 60,000 ha for industry (4)MUMBAI: With a view to attracting investment, the Maharashtra government plans to acquire 60,000hectares for industrial development. Aiming for an investment target of $500 billion, the focus would be ondeveloping the manufacturing sector, Chief Secretary of the State Ratnakar Gaikwad told a pressconference here on Tuesday. “The plan is to acquire 60,000 hectares of land through the MaharashtraIndustrial Development Corporation,” Mr. Gaikwad said. “I am confident we will acquire 20,000 hectareswithin one year.” A day-long ‘Investor Aftercare' conference is being held here on Thursday with robustgovernment participation. “Maharashtra has continued to attract investment despite problems. Ourgovernment is fully committed to investors. We will provide assistance and support formally andinformally. We want to attract investment to the tune of $500 billion in three to five years,” Mr. Gaikwadsaid. While land acquisition was a major concern, he said the government had put in place landacquisition units for the purpose. Opposition to land acquisition is under way for many projects. A chunkof land for the Navi Mumbai Airport is pending to be acquired due to protests. Acquisition of land for theDelhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) is clouded by uncertainties. Early this year, the Stategovernment called for returning land to protesting farmers in Raigad after the land acquisition process forReliance Special Economic Zone (SEZ) lapsed. Mr. Gaikwad said the sites the government had selectedfor this ambitious acquisition are those where habitation would not be affected. He said rehabilitation wasalso not an issue for Maharashtra. To a question on the Jaitapur rehabilitation package, he said the issuethere was not related to land. DMIC, he felt, would give a big boost to industrial development in the State.Port development was another important area. “Port traffic is currently 150 billion tonnes. We want toincrease our capacity to 500 billion tonnes,” he said. As for the recent power crisis in the State, Mr.Gaikwad said it was a “temporary problem.” “We are positive that by 2012, we will be a power-surplusState,” he said. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is slated to speak at the summit, an initiative of theMaharashtra Economic Development Council. (The Hindu 18/10/11)Converts disputed areas into trusteeship zone: Haldar (4)Shillong, Oct 19:Former Intelligence Bureau Chief PC Haldar today mooted the idea of convertingdisputed areas between states in the northeast into trusteeship zone and jointly developing the areas intoeconomic centres. ''BG Verghese (Journalist) has said that converting disputed areas into trusteeshipzone where the claimant states would equally have right over the areas in terms of developing it, shouldbe given a thought,'' Mr Haldar said. Speaking at a two-day workshop on 'Development Paradigms in theNortheast' at North Eastern Council auditorium, the former Intelligence Bureau Chief said ideas putforward by scholars should be given a thought to veer out of the present problem of disputed boundariesbetween different states of the region. Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh have

disputes with one another along their respective boundaries. The problem has persisted for decades withno solution at sight. Not just the local inhabitants, he said, but claimant states would benefit from such aformulation by developing the region jointly into, perhaps, Special Economic Zones or take up otherdevelopmental initiatives. The financial benefits would then be shared equally by the states and wouldeventually percolate to the inhabitants. ''There can be central institutes that can be brought up in theseareas or any other developmental initiatives taken up jointly. But the question is can we bypass thedispute and get into development,'' Haldar asked. In the Meghalaya and Assam context, there are 12disputed areas. Much of these lands are in utter neglect although these are substantially large in size.Assam and Nagaland boundary dispute has continued from 1968 and recently the Supreme Courtappointedpanel has submitted its report to the Chief Justice to find a solution to the problem. Similarly,Assam-Arunachal and Arunachal-Nagaland has boundary disputes. On the reopening of Stilwell road, MrHaldar said the northeast must first think in terms of becoming an 'originator of goods and service' beforetaking to this world war era road. ''The Stilwell road was never a trade route, it was meant for militarypurposes and for that too it was seldom used. The northeast must not think merely of being the transit butan originator of goods and services that can be exported,'' he suggested. (New Kerala 20/10/11)Court cancels acquisition in 3 Noida villages, hikes compensation (4)Allahabad, Oct 21 : The Allahabad High Court Friday ordered cancellation of land acquisition in threevillages of Noida and Greater Noida, besides declaring a 64 percent hike in the compensation foracquired land. A special three-judge bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, S.U. Khan and V.K.Shukla gave the verdict on a joint writ petition moved by 491 farmers from more than a dozen villages inGautam Budh Nagar district, forming Noida and Greater Noida. More than 3,000 hectares of land wasacquired by the Uttar Pradesh government for large scale urbanization in these areas. The judgment will,however, jeopardise the dreams of thousands of applicants who were hoping to own a home underdifferent housing schemes undertaken in the three villages - Deola, Chak-Shahberi (Greater Noida) andAsadullahpur (Noida) - where the court has quashed the acquisition. Farmers of these three villages havebeen entitled to restoration of their acquired land, subject to return of all compensation they have receivedso far. The court said: "The Greater Noida Authority and its allottees are directed not to carry ondevelopment and not to implement the Master Plan 2021 till the observations and directions of theNational Capital Regional Planning Board are incorporated in Master Plan 2021 to the satisfaction of theNational Capital Regional Planning Board. " The court further called for immediate suspension of allconstruction and urbanization activity in 40 villages of Greater Noida until a clearance was obtained froman officer of the rank of principal secretary that the work was in accordance with the norms laid down bythe National Capital Region (NCR) Planning Board. Meanwhile, 19 other petitions moved on behalf offarmers of two other villages were rejected as these were "time-barred". In addition to monetarycompensation, the Noida and Greater Noida authorities have also been directed to give developed land toevery farmer, whose land was acquired. "All the petitioners shall be entitled for allotment of developed'Abadi' plot to the extent of 10 percent of their acquired land subject to a maximum of 2,500 sq metres."We, however, leave it open to the Authority in cases where allotment of Abadi plot to the extent of sixpercent or eight percent have already been made either to make allotment of the balance of the area ormay compensate the land owners by payment of the amount equivalent to balance area as per averagerate of allotment made of developed residential plots," the court ruled. Litigation in Noida and GreaterNoida has been on the rise ever since the Mayawati government took up large scale urbanization in andaround the entire area. What sparked off major trouble was violent protests which put the stategovernment in a tight spot, particularly after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi plunged in to take up thecause of farmers. What came as a morale booster for them was the order of the high court May 12,striking down the acquisition of 156 hectares of land in Shahberi village. The court cancelled theacquisition on the plea that land was acquired in the village in the name of "planned industrialdevelopment of Greater Noida", but later handed over to private developers for building housing projects."The state government's appeal against the high court was later struck down by the Supreme Court, whichfurther encouraged more farmers to challenge the acquisition of land in larger areas around. As the issueacquired larger magnitude, with the fate of hundreds of farmers, real estate companies and thousands offlat buyers at stake, the court decided to constitute a special three-judge bench to take up the matter onwhich the verdict was pronounced Friday. Reacting to the judgment, farmers' counsel Lalji Thakur toldmediapersons: "We welcome the court's decision to increase the compensation, but we still feel thatacquisition in several villages needs to be scrapped." "A final decision on making an appeal to the

Supreme Court would be taken only after I have had a detailed discussion with my farmer clients," hesaid. (New Kerala 21/10/11)Displaced youth yet to get promised jobs (4)MANGALORE: Four months after they were promised of appointment letters by Nalim Kumar Kateel, MP,and district in-charge Minister J. Krishna Palemar, 1,063 families displaced by the Mangalore SpecialEconomic Zone are nowhere closer to getting jobs. In particular, Mr. Palemar, on July 13, promised jobsto the project displaced families and a monthly stipend of Rs. 10,000 till they began work. While 1,664families have been displaced by MSEZ, 601 opted for a one-time cash payment in lieu of a job. The rest,however, registered one nominee each with the Deputy Commissioner for jobs to be provided by MSEZ.As many as 392 families are pursuing studies on their own, and 411 nominees were given training byMSEZ at the Karnataka Polytechnic for a specially designed course . During the KPT course and after,the students have been agitating for jobs and had stopped construction of Phase III of MangaloreRefinery and Petrochemical for several days. Mr. Palemar and Mr. Kumar had promised the students thatall project displaced families empanelled with the Deputy Commissioner for jobs would be grantedappointment letters. Four months later, the situation has not changed for them. Mr. Palemar told theKarnataka Development Programmes review meeting on Saturday that the promise would be fulfilled inthree days. (The Hindu 23/10/11)Polavaram: Raghavulu slams State (4)KHAMMAM, October 27, 2011: CPI (M) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu on Tuesday alleged that theState government proceeded with the tender process of Polavaram project without seriously studying thealternative plans proposed by the technical experts to reduce submergence and protect large tracts oftribal and forest lands from flooding. Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Mr Raghavuludeplored that the government did not even bother to give a serious thought to the alternative proposalsput forth by the CPI (M) to reduce flooding of tribal lands. The alternative plan encompassing viabletechnically feasible suggestions like reducing the height of the dam of Polavaram project and constructionof tunnels and balancing reservoirs to minimise displacement besides saving money and time, he said,adding the Supreme Court had earlier advised the government to study the alternative plan. MrRaghavulu said if the project was allowed to be constructed as per the original design, it would not onlycause extensive submergence of the tribal lands but also prove counterproductive in terms of hugeexpenditure involved in it. Although the Central government came up with a draft Land Acquisition,Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Bill, the State government chose to award Polavaram projectconstruction works without completing the rehabilitation process for rendering justice to over two lakhtribal people bound to be displaced by the project, he criticised. He demanded that the governmentshould examine the alternative plan and redesign the project accordingly. On the plight of the farmers, hereiterated his demand for declaration of drought-hit mandals and sanction of compensation forthwith. Thegovernment should waive the crop loans of all the distressed farmers to help them overcome the presentcrisis, he demanded. CPI (M) central committee member T Veerabhadram, district secretary P.Sudarshan Rao, and executive committee member N Nageswara Rao were among those present. (TheHindu 27/10/11)Tata Motors challenges Singur order (4)Kolkata, October 29, 2011: Tata Motors on Saturday challenged the order of the single judge of theCalcutta high court, which had upheld the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, bywhich West Bengal government vested the land leased to the company at Singur, before a division benchof the court. The Tata Motors has appealed against the order of justice IP Mukerji which was passed onSeptember 28 and gave a copy of the petition to government pleader Ashok Kumar Banerjee. Thepetition is likely to be moved before a division bench of the high court after it reopens on October 31. Thehigh court has held the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011 to be constitutional. Thecourt had, however, ordered on September 28 an unconditional stay of the judgement till November twoto allow any aggrieved party to file an appeal, if it so desired. Tata Motors, which was to set up its Nanocar plant at Singur, had moved to Sanand in Gujarat in 2008 citing a law and order problem. (TheHindustan Times 29/10/11)Tatas seek two Singur order (4)

Calcutta, Oct. 31: Tata Motors today filed an appeal before a division bench of Calcutta High Courtchallenging the verdict by Justice I.P. Mukerji, of the same court, that upheld the validity of the Singurland act. The company also sought an interim stay on the verdict and the continuation of the SupremeCourt’s interim directive restraining distribution of plots among “unwilling” farmers in Singur. The originalrestraint was to hold till the trial bench of Mukerji disposed of the case. On September 28, Mukerji hadpassed a judgment upholding the validity of the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011,which the government had brought in to take back the land given to the Tatas for the Nano factory. Thedivision bench of Justices K.J. Sengupta and Jaymalya Bagchi will hear the appeal from tomorrow. TheTatas moved the appeal today as Justice Mukerji had stayed the implementation of his order tillNovember 2. The court opened today after a month-long Puja vacation. “You come to our court tomorrowafter completing the departmental procedures and serving copies on the respondents. We will hear yourapplication tomorrow,” Justice Sengupta told Tata counsel Samaraditya Pal. (The Telegraph 1/11/11)Pattas for Saranda villagers by month-end (4)New Delhi, Oct. 31: Jharkhand and the Centre today gave final shape to a plan that aims to improve thelives of 36,000 people living in Saranda forest. At a high-level meeting in Union rural developmentminister Jairam Ramesh’s office, chief minister Arjun Munda discussed a time-bound strategy toimplement the Saranda Action Plan. Ramesh said by November 10, Jharkhand would start appointingrozgar sevaks (employment facilitators) for each of the 56 villages in the area. “By November-end, thestate will start giving pattas according to the forest act. Seven thousand families will also be providedhomes under Indira Awaas Yojana,” he said. A controversial yet critical plan for the area is theconstruction of 70km-long cement-concrete road. The route will connect Kiriburu, Karampada, Thalkobad,Tiriliposi, Digha and Bhanuletha. “We’ve asked Jharkhand to prepare a brief detailed project report byend November. The state can get it done through the forest department and there will be no need fortenders,” said Ramesh. Sources in the ministry revealed that Border Roads Organisation, Border SecurityForce and the CRPF were approached to build the road, but they all declined. The ministry of new andrenewable energy will provide solar lanterns for the families in the area and the state government hasalready floated tenders for bicycles to be distributed free to the locals. Transistor sets will also bedistributed and all the costs will be met through the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for backward Naxalite-hitdistricts. Steel Authority of India Limited, which has large open cast mines in Chiria, will also be involved.“This psychological war against the Maoists will succeed through rural development,” Ramesh claimed.Today’s meeting was also attended by CRPF director-general K. Vijay Kumar, rural developmentsecretary B.K. Sinha and home ministry officials. Munda and Ramesh will tour Saranda in December,which they said would also put pressure on officials to perform. Meanwhile, Munda requested Ramesh tolobby for special provisions for forest dwellers in the cabinet. “There are 3,000 villages in Jharkhandwhich can only be approached through forests. For any development effort there, roads must be builtthrough forests for which we need relaxation of forest laws,” Munda said. He also sought a roadmap forlocal participation. A source present at the meeting hinted at the setting up of a vigilante wing in Saranda,which would be integrated with the police force. “Trained by the CRPF, the Pahariya Battalion willcomprise tribal villagers and will be a part of the regular Jharkhand Armed Police,” said the source.(Telegraph 1/11/11)Farmers seek draft of acquisition bill (4)SONIPAT: A delegation of farmers from Badkhalsa village of Sonipat district on Wednesday asked thechairperson of parliament's standing committee, Sumitra Mahajan, to draft the land acquisition bill. BJPMLA from Sonipat, Kavita Jain who led the delegation, handed over a memorandum to the chairpersonurging her to incorporate provisions of farmers' welfare in the draft. Their primary demands include:provisions for moving the court against land acquisition, giving representation to a farmers' representativein the acquisition committee, acquisition only in public interest, release of the acquired land if not utilized,and reservations in government services for three generations of the affected farmers. Kavita Jain allegedthat Haryana government was not releasing even a little of the acquired land on the demand made byfarmers, though it had released around 10,000 acres in favour of builders during the past seven years.The land belonging to farmers of Badkhalsa village was acquired in 2006, but the landowners have notaccepted the award money yet. They had been on an indefinite dharna from the past 95 days under thebanner - Bhoomi Adhigrahan Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti. (Times of India 3/11/11)

‘Land acquisition at market price’ (4)New Delhi: As the land acquisition emerges as one of the most contentious issues, often taking politicalovertones on the question of low compensation, the Supreme Court has held that the farmers wereentitled to an award as per the latest market price entered in revenue records for any land transaction inthe area immediately before the government’s acquisition notification. The top court also said that whiledetermining the compensation for agriculture land, the government has to assess the value of the wellsand trees; both fruit bearing and other commercial woods, which are the valuable assets for any farmer.While applying these parameters for deciding the compensation to some farmers from Jalgaon area inMaharashtra for the land acquired by the state government for irrigation projects in 1996, a bench ofJustices G.S. Singhvi and H.L. Dattu enhanced the award to them six times — from `1 lakh to `6 lakhs —as was fixed by the Bombay high court. The top court rejected the Maharashtra government’s claim thatthe market value of the land at the time of issuing of the notification ranted between `54,000 and `68,000per hectare. The apex court found that in fact two sale deeds for `2.76 lakhs and `3 lakhs were registeredin the “revenue records” a few days before the government had issued the notification. The SupremeCourt rejected the state government’s claim that such high price in the two land transactions could havebeen paid due to some “specific reasons”. In fact, the high court had accepted such a stand of theMaharashtra government while overturning the compensation award fixed by the lower court at the rate of`6 lakhs per hectare on the basis of the two registered deeds. While restoring the award to `6 lakhs, theapex court also took into consideration the assessment of land price by an independent agriculture andhorticulture consultant, who had included the value of the irrigation wells, trees; both fruit bearing andcommercial woods to determining the whole package. (Asian Age 3/11/11)Posco urges state to expedite work at plant site (4)Bhubaneswar: Posco-India on Tuesday requested the Odisha government to expedite work at the projectsite of the 12 mtpa mega steel plant near Paradip. The requested was made by a delegation of Posco-India led by Posco-India CMD Y K Yoon and company's Odisha project director Y K Kim when they metIndustrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) CMD Priyabrat Patnaik. Yoon particularlymentioned about the work on the approach road to the site of the Rs Rs 52,000 crore plant. Thedelegation indicated they were keen to start work over the 2,000 acre of land so far acquired for thepurpose. "We are discussing over the matter and the government is resuming its work at the proposedproject site," Kim said after meeting the IDCO chief. IDCO looks after the land acquisition for industrialprojects in the state. "As the company was waiting for six years to establish the steel facility here, theywould not be very happy," Patnaik told reporters after meeting the delegation. Posco-India signed an MoUwith the state government on June 22, 2005 but was unable to start work at the proposed plant site due tostiff opposition from the local people. The company had originally set a target of going to first phaseproduction of 6 mtpa steel by July 2010 or 36 months from the date of taking title of land. (Zee News9/11/11)Singur stay extended to vendors’ land (4)Calcutta, Nov. 8: Calcutta High Court today allowed the 33 Nano plant vendors to become parties to theTata Motors’ appeal against the Singur rehabilitation act and restrained the state from giving out plots tofarmers from the vendors’ land. After today’s order, the Mamata Banerjee-led government would not beable to distribute plots to “unwilling” farmers from any area that had been marked out for the small-carplant or the vendor units until the disposal of the case. On November 3, the high court had restrained thegovernment from distributing plots to the farmers till the disposal of Tata Motors’ appeal challenging theverdict that upheld the validity of the Singur land act. At that time, the vendors were not party to the case.On that day, state counsel Kalyan Banerjee told the division bench of Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose andMrinal Kanti Chaudhuri that if the court imposed a stay order on the Singur Land Rehabilitation andDevelopment Act, 2011, it should be restricted to the 647 acres of the Nano mother plant. “The rest of theland (belonging to the vendors) should not be kept under the ambit of the stay order so that thegovernment can distribute it among the unwilling farmers,” Banerjee had said. Today’s order rules out thatpossibility too. Appearing for the vendors, advocate S.K. Kapoor told the division bench that the ChiefJustice had allowed his clients to be added as parties to the Tata Motors appeal. He said the land allottedto the vendors must not be distributed among the farmers. After the court’s order on the vendors’ land,Tata Motors’ counsel Samaraditya Pal started his submission against the trial court’s judgment upholding

the rehabilitation law. “The trial court does not have the power to rewrite an act, it can only interpret thesame,” he said, adding that the court even after saying that a part of the act was vague, “declared it wasvalid”. Hearing will continue tomorrow. (The Telegraph 9/11/11)'Cops probing mass killing led Nandigram firing' (4)Nandigram: Trinamool strongman Subhendu Adhikary on Thursday alleged that some police officersinvolved in the March 14, 2007, police firing in Nandigram and now posted in the CID have been roped into probe the November 10, 2007, killings during CPM's operation Suryaday to recapture the village. At ameeting in Nandigram, the Trinamool MP said people of Nandigram were unhappy with the CID probe sofar. He alleged that present CID special superintendent Debashish Boral had led policemen from the frontduring the March 14 firing from Gokulnagar itself. Also, said Adhikary, then OC-ranked officer and presentCID SI Rathin Bakshi had ordered the firing from Khejuri's Janani brickfield area. Sharing the dais withAdhikary at a meeting to mark Shahid Diwas was Bhumi Uchhed Protirodh Committee (BUPC) leaderSheikh Khusnabi. The BUPC leader regretted Mamata Banerjee's absence on a day the villageremembers those killed by CPM harmads four years ago. The then ruling party had allegedly sent armedharmads to launch the 'operation' as Trinamool Congress and the BUPC held sway over Nandigram sincethe death of 14 people in the March 14 firing. Subhendu was addressing the meeting at Karpara inNandigram's Gokulnagar village on the fourth Shahid Diwas to observe the November 10 killing of twomen. Seven others went missing after armed harmads raided different areas in Nandigram to recapturethem during the CPM operation. They allegedly raped several women in Nandigram villages and injuredmany Trinamool and BUPC supporters. Families of the seven missing in 'operation Suryaday' recentlyfiled a habeas corpus petition in Calcutta high court seeking that their kin be traced by the state, whetherdead or alive. The court ordered the CID to probe the November 10 incident and asked the investigatingagency to submit a report before it on November 17. CID sleuths began the probe and arrested CPMKhejuri panchayat member Ajit Bar on November 3. The involvement of these "guilty'' police officers in theCID probe, said Adhikary, had raised doubts among Nandigram residents about whether the stategovernment would act against the CPM leaders, harmads as well as policemen involved in eitheroperation Suryaday or the March 14 firing. "There are several eyewitnesses who would swear that CPMleader and former MP Lakshman Seth and other leaders of that party in Khejuri were involved inoperation Suryaday. Yet, there is no move by the CID to nail them. While the present state government istrying to create a clean administration, I don't think these tainted CID officers can unearth the truth andtake action against guilty CPM men and policemen involved in operation Suryaday," said Adhikary.Regretting mamata's absence from Nandigram on this day, BUPC's Khusnabi recalled her speech duringthe assembly poll campaign. "She had said winds of change were blowing in the state because of theNandigram movement. But instead of being with us on this day of sorrow, she is happily at theinauguration of the film festival," he said. (Times of India 11/11/11)No compensation enough for loss of land: Trivedi (4)Furfura Sharif (WB): Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi on Sunday admitted that no compensation wasenough for loss of land, but said Railways was providing employment to one member of each familyaffected by a railway project so that "their life goes on". "Land is life. Just as no compensation is enoughfor the loss of life, likewise, there cannot be enough compensation for loss of land," he said laying thefoundation for the 19.5 km-long Furfura-Dankuni railway line project. Loss of land cannot be compensatedwith employment. "But life has to go on. That is why our leader Mamata Banerjee during her tenure asRailway Minister had taken up a model for the entire country that one member of the land loser familieswould be given employment," he said. Appointment letters were handed over during the day to 18landowners of Dankuni who gave their land for the Railway project, he said. Dankuni Furfura Sharif, hometo a Muslim shrine in Hooghly district, is not far from Singur from where Banerjee began her campaignagainst land acquisition. Trivedi said Banerjee had allocated funds for the project during her tenure asRailway Minister. "Our leader has asked me to tell you that the survey work will be done in three months.We will try to complete the project in 18 months," he said. (Zee News 13/11/11)Industry against proposed law on land acquisition (4)MUMBAI, November 14, 2011: If the proposed law on acquisition of land is passed, it will be a setback toindustrial, infrastructure and urbanization projects, business leaders said at the World Economic Forum's

India Economic Forum on Monday. Representatives of industry criticised many provisions of the law,including its mandate on purchase price to be several times the current market rate, the provision thatbuyers are responsible for rehabilitation and resettlement of those displaced, including giving them ashare of equity or jobs for 26 years. “We believe it is not fair. If there is forcible land acquisition, it shouldbe difficult and expensive,” said Priya Hiranandani-Vandrevala, Founder and Chairman, Hirco Group,said, adding that it was unfair that the same provisions on pricing and rehabilitation should apply whenland is sold voluntarily. The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011, applies if morethan 50 acres of urban land or 100 acres of rural land is being acquired. Ajit Gulabchand, Chairman andManaging Director, Hindustan Construction Company, planned its proposal that the consent of 80 percent of those likely to be affected should be achieved before the purchase takes place, explaining thatland ownership is so fragmented and titles so unclear that this provision can extend the process of landpurchase indefinitely. Ratnakar Yashwant Gaikwad, Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra,asserted that most projects were built on marginal, unirrigated and infertile lands, and the only way tocreate jobs to absorb the excess rural workforce was to expand the manufacturing sector. PrashantBangur, Executive President, Shree Cement, said the Bill needed to inject an element of certainty andfinality in land buyers' responsibilities, arguing that it is counterproductive to guarantee a job to thedisplaced for 26 years, as they would have no motivation to be productive. Mr. Gulabchand demandedthat the land acquisition bill should be transferred from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of RuralDevelopment to the Ministry of Law. He also argued that the onus of rehabilitation should not be on thebuyer but on the government. “If the bill in its present form is passed, there will be no development in thecountry for the next 100 years,” he said. (The Hindu 14/11/11)Only 18 of 104 approved SEZs in state operational (4)MUMBAI: The Centre has circulated a comprehensive paper on proposed policy changes relating to landrequirement for SEZs. "We have to submit our suggestions to the Centre," a senior state bureaucrat toldTOI. He said if the proposed changes were accepted, then Maharashtra would be the biggest beneficiary,since quite a large number of SEZs had been held up owing to non-availability of contiguous land.According to a senior bureaucrat, a month ago when the ministry of commerce reviewed the SEZ policy, itwas found that a mere 143 of the 583 approved SEZs had commenced operations. "The Centre broughtin the comprehensive policy in 2006, mainly to boost exports, but it appears that during the last five years,the performance of most of the SEZs was dismal and quite a large number of entrepreneurs havesubmitted applications for denotification," he said. In Maharashtra, out of 143 approved proposals, 27have submitted applications for withdrawal on the ground that in view of the changed economic situation,there was no scope for development of SEZs. The Centre found that non-availability of non-doublecropped, contiguous and vacant land, lack of attractiveness in the SEZ in face of the changed fiscalregime, absence of single window system, large number of states not having an SEZ policy or Act toenable provision of the benefits envisaged under the SEZ act, issue of constraints leading to slow pace ofdevelopment of infrastructure within the SEZs and complete lack of external support were the mainreasons for dismal performance of the SEZs and spurt in number of applications for denotification. "Inview of the piquant situation, the Centre has now proposed potential reforms in the SEZ policy andoperating framework. In fact, it has sought the view of all state governments on the proposed reforms toensure that SEZs continue to attract investments," the bureaucrat said. On the performance of theoperational SEZs, the bureaucrat said Gujarat, with a total export of Rs 1.47 lakh crore leads the list,followed by Karnataka (Rs 46,718 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 43,704 crore) and Maharashtra (Rs 19,480crore). Significantly, out of the 104 approved SEZs in Maharashtra, only 18 have gone into production,against Gujarat's 45 approved and 13 in production. (Times of India 15/11/11)SEZs to play major role in development of Andhra Pradesh : Chief Minister (4)Hyderabad, Nov 15 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has said that SpecialEconomic Zones (SEZs) will be playing a major role in the development of the state and in the next threeyears an employment of 50 lakh will be generated in the state. Speaking after gaving away annualExports Awards to the EOUs, SEZ units and SEZ Developers, yesterday, for their performance for theyears 2007-08, 2008-09, and 2009-10, organised by Vishakapatnam SEZ and Export Promotion Councilfor EOUS and SEZs (EPCES) Regional Council, here he said to understand the problems and challengesfaced by SEZs, he would be visiting personally to the SEZs very shortly so that the government to supportin all possible ways. Around 84 awards were given to 45 companies for their excellence in terms of

production, infrastructure development and services. APIIC bagged three awards under differentcategories. APIIC Vice-Chairaman and Manging Director B R Meena received the award on behalf ofAPIIC. Other prominent SEZ developers like Sri Iity, Phoenix, Divya Shree NSL and DLF also got theaward. Minister for Major Industries Dr J Geetha Reddy and Minister for Information Technology andEndowments Ponnala Laxmahiah also participated in the programme, an official release said here today.(New Kerala 16/11/11)Maharashtra govt to oppose Centre's Land Acquisition Bill (4)Mumbai: The Maharashtra government is set to oppose the Centre’s Land Acquisition Bill, which willremove the state’s role in acquiring land for industrial purposes. Should the proposed central act come in,industrial houses will have to negotiate directly with the farmers and the owners of the land that theyintend to acquire. The industrial houses will need the consent of 80% of the people whose land is to beacquired. This will also be applicable to projects like infrastructure projects. We are going to oppose thisBill since we believe it will harm the interests of all concerned,” said a government official. “First, we arenot in favour of industrial houses going across to farmers directly to acquire land since that can lead tomalpractices and arm-twisting,” he said. The Centre decided to do away with the intermediary role of thestate after the Singur, West Bengal, fiasco where protesting farmers were shot down by the police. Thefarmers were then protesting the acquisition of land by the West Bengal government for the Tatas theplanned Nano project. The farmers killing raised a hue and cry and the Centre soon said it would changethe current Land Acquisition Bill to make it friendlier to those affected by such projects. The biggerconcern is the need to win over the consent of 80% of voters. “This effectively means that a small numberof farmers can always halt any project. How are we to know if this protest is genuine or directed by vestedinterests?” the official asked. There is another concern that any such new law will harm the state’sposition as the leader in industry. By and large, Maharashtra farmers are comparatively prosperous andwhen their land is sought for projects, they demand a very high price, often forcing industrialists to look toother states. For instance, Maruti preferred Gujarat to Maharashtra since a large tract of land wasavailable to it readily. “It is here that the state does have a role to play. The state government needs tohave a role in acquiring land and making it available for industrialists. That is how the state can play a rolein pushing its industrialisation. If this bill goes through, we will be reduced to being spectators and won’tbe able to help our state,” the official said. Yet, the task won’t be easy. Congress general secretary RahulGandhi had spoken out for the Bill that did away with the role of the state. For Maharashtra, the remedymight be worse than ailment, but how dos the state go against its own leader. (DNA 24/11/11)Mindless land acquisition will imperil food security: court (4)New Delhi, November 25, 2011: The Supreme Court has pulled up the State governments for theircallous approach to acquisition of land from farmers and for issuing notifications in violation of theprocedure under the Land Acquisition Act. Decrying mindless acquisitions, a Bench of Justices G.S.Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhaya said the consequent notifications were nullified by courts on the groundof violation of the mandatory procedure and rules of natural justice. Writing the judgment, Justice Singhvisaid: “The disposal of cases filed by landowners and others takes some time and the resultant delay hasa great adverse impact on implementation of projects of public importance. Of course, the delay indeciding such cases may not be of much significance when the state and its agencies want to conferbenefit upon private parties by acquiring land in the name of public purpose.” It was difficult to appreciatewhy the state and its instrumentalities “resort to massive acquisition and that too without complying withthe mandate of the statute, the Bench lamented. “As noted by the National Commission on Farmers(NCF), the acquisition of agricultural land in the name of planned development or industrial growth wouldseriously affect the availability of food in future.” After Independence, the administrative apparatus of thestate did not make enough investment in rural areas and “those who have been doing agriculture havenot been educated and empowered to adopt alternative sources of livelihood.” In 1947, Prime MinisterPandit Jawaharlal Nehru said, “Everything else can wait, but not agriculture,” the Bench pointed out. In itsfifth and final report, the NCF headed by M.S. Swaminathan observed that prime land must be conservedfor agriculture and should not be diverted for non-agricultural purposes, or else food availability wouldsuffer in the country, where 60 per cent of the population still depended on agriculture and people livingBelow the Poverty Line were finding it difficult to survive. “Unfortunately, these words of wisdom appear tohave become irrelevant to the state apparatus, which has used the Land Acquisition Act in the last two

decades for massive acquisition of agricultural land in different parts of the country.” This “has not onlyadversely impacted farmers but also generated huge litigation and adjudication consumes substantialtime of the courts.” The Bench said: “If the land of such persons is acquired not only the current but futuregenerations will be ruined and this is one of the reasons why the farmers who are deprived of theirholdings commit suicide. It also appears that the authorities concerned are totally unmindful of the plightof those sections of society who are deprived of their only asset like a small house, a small industrial unit,etc. They do not realise that having one's own house is a lifetime dream of the majority of the populationof this country.” Therefore, the Bench said, “it is wholly unjust, arbitrary and unreasonable to deprive suchpersons of their houses by way of land acquisition in the name of development of infrastructure orindustrialisation. If the land on which small industrial units are established is acquired, their hopes will beshattered. Therefore, before acquiring private land, the state and/or its agencies/instrumentalities should,as far as possible, use land belonging to the state for the specified public purpose. If the acquisition ofprivate land becomes absolutely necessary, then the authorities must strictly comply with the statutoryprovisions and the rules of natural justice.” In the instant case, Raghbir Singh Sehrawat was aggrievedover the acquisition of his cultivable land in Haryana in 2006. His writ petition against acquisition wasdismissed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Allowing the appeal against this judgment and settingaside the acquisition as illegal, the Bench directed the State government to pay him Rs. 2.50 lakh towardscosts. (The Hindu 25/11/11)Single SEZ status for SmartCity (4)KOCHI, November 26, 2011: With the State government filing a letter with the Board of Approval (BoA) ofthe Union Commerce Ministry specifying the character of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) it prefers for theproposed SmartCity Kochi project, decks have been cleared for the formal notification of the entire 246acres of the project as SEZ. The meeting of the BoA slated for Monday is likely to take up the matter andthe formal gazette notification is expected to be issued soon thereafter. The last meeting of the BoA heldin September had approved SEZ status for the remaining 114 acres as 132 acres had already receivedthe approval in March. The BoA was agreeable to notifying the entire project area either as a single SEZor multiple SEZ but had asked the State government to formally convey its preference. “The Stategovernment has filed the letter opting for a single SEZ,” Baju George, Managing Director of SmartCity(India), toldThe Hinduon Friday. The BoA notification will lay to rest apprehensions over whether theentire project site would be notified as a single SEZ as there was a water body separating the land intotwo parts. Initially, it was feared that single SEZ status would not be granted on account of contiguityfactor. Mr. George said that a team of the New York-based Cannon Design is working on the conceptmaster plan and that it would be ready by January. He said that the construction of the first phase of theSmartCity Kochi project will be launched in January. The road shows and sales promotion campaigns forattracting investments to the SmartCity Kochi will also kick start on January. “We are already indiscussion with developers and IT companies,” Mr. George said. He felt that IT investors within thecountry should be given more prominence though international players are also important. “At present,the IT and ITES production in India is to the tune of 88 billion dollars. However, the IT Policy of the Uniongovernment envisages it to touch 300 billion dollars in another decade, which means that companieswithin the country will have to expand by more than three-fold. SmartCity Kochi will be a success even ifwe manage to get a share of that expansion,” Mr. George said. Stating that the next meeting of the boardof directors of the company will be held in January, he said that the idea is to conduct it in the upcomingnew pavilion at the project site. (The Hindu 26/11/11)Karnataka farmers to protest against agri-summit (4)Bangalore, Nov 30 : Even as the Karnataka government braces to hold the global agri-business and foodprocess summit in this tech hub Thursday, leading farmers' organisations in the state have decided toconduct a parallel meeting to protest against overseas investments in the farm sector. "About 5,000farmers and agricultural workers from across the state will participate in the protest meeting as we areopposed to the state government selling farm lands to overseas investors," Karnataka Prantha RaithaSangha (KPRS) general secretary G.C. Bayyareddy told reporters Wednesday. On the eve of the two-dayglobal investors' meet in the farm sector at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) on thecity's outskirts, touted to be the first of its kind in the country, about 1,000 farmers took out a rally in thecity urging the state government to desist from pledging thousands of acres of land to multinational firms."Though the government claims that it would not acquire farmers' land, the chief minister (D.V.

Sadananda Gowda) said Nov 25 that about 30,000 acres would be required for investments in theagriculture sector to increase productivity and sustain farm growth," Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha(KRRS) general secretary Chukki Nanjundaswamy said. Allaying fears of the farmers, Gowda told theprotesters at the rally that the objective of the summit was to attract domestic and overseas investmentsin the farm sector and food processing as their (farmers') welfare and sustaining agriculture growth werethe main priorities of the state government. "The main objective of the summit is to ensure sustainablegrowth in the sector with avenues to generate more income to the farming community throughproductivity, access to markets and remunerative prices for their produce," Gowda told the agitatedfarmers. Disagreeing with the chief minister's contention, Bayyareddy said the state government waspursing anti-farmers' policies. "To favour multinational firms and corporates, which have vested intereststo enter the farm sector, the state government has already amended the Agricultural Produce MarketingCommittee (APMC) Act and has proposed to amend the Karnataka Land Reforms Act that would enableinvestors to buy farm lands and convert them for non-farming activities," Bayyareddy said Seekingfarmers' cooperation in making the summit a success, Gowda said the farm sector in the state had apotential to attract Rs.51,700 crore, including Rs.36,000 crore in setting up special facilities for agro-foodprocessing industries, Rs.8,000 crore for support facilities, Rs.4,762 crore in allied areas and Rs.1,380crore in dryland farming. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has been invited to inaugurate thesummit, while Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member Sitaram Yechury will be addressing thefarmers' protest meet near the venue, about 25 km from the city. "Private sector investment will harm thefarm sector and multi-nationals will eventually dictate terms," another farmers' leader KodihalliChandrashekar said. (New Kerala 1/12/11)CBI probe into land acquisition sought (4)CHANDIGARH: Acting on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probein a land acquisition case of Bathinda district, Punjab and Haryana high court issued a notice to Punjabgovernment on Wednesday. The petition stated the acquisition had helped three influential families of thestate to earn around Rs 5.63 crore, causing undue loss to exchequer. The land was acquired for anengineered sanitary landfill facility. The petitioners are Jarnail Singh and others of Mandi Khurd village ofBathinda district. They also sought directions to shift the project to some other place. They said stategovernment had decided to acquire 36.81 acres in their village for the project. A survey was alsoconducted on February 10, 2010. Most of the land had been purchased by Yadwinder Singh and twoother influential families on February 18 and 23 at a price of Rs 1.59 crore. Petitioners produced newsreports showing Yadwinder Singh as district president of Youth Akali Dal, Ludhiana, and a closeassociate of Bikram Singh Majithia. On February 25, 2010, a report was sent to principal secretary statingthe land was appropriate for the project. A compensation of Rs 8.67 crore was paid for acquiring it.Counsel for the petitioners, advocate Ramandeep Pandher, argued that Bathinda civic body had a site of36 acre situated on Bathinda-Mansa road, but state dropped the idea of setting up the plant there on theground that it was not possible to install solid waste plant there as 40 acres were required for that. Nowthe case would come up for hearing on January 6. (Times of India 1/12/11)PM writes to Jaya on Mullaperiyar dam issue (4)Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi: The political battle over the Mullaperiyar dam row escalated onThursday with Tamil Nadu accusing Kerala of whipping up a ‘fear psychosis’ even as Prime MinisterManmohan Singh said nothing should be said or done to create undue alarm. In his first communicationto his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa after the latest row erupted, Kerala chief minister OomenChandy, who is expected to meet the Prime Minister on Friday, wrote a letter asking for reducing thewater level in the reservoir to 120 feet as an immediate step to remove the fears of lakhs of people in thearea. With emotions running high in both the southern states, Prime Minister Singh sought to defuse thesituation writing to Jayalalithaa, saying nothing should be said or done to create undue alarm and hopedthe issue would be sorted out amicably through dialogue. Replying to letters written by Jayalalithaa on theMullaperiyar issue, Singh said he had asked the Water Resources Ministry to convene an early meetingbetween officials of Tamil Nadu and Kerala to “sort out outstanding issues and allay genuine concerns”.He also sought Jayalalithaa’s cooperation on the issue. “I believe that nothing should be said or done tocreate undue alarm among the people,” he added. The Tamil Nadu government moved the SupremeCourt accusing Kerala government of whipping up “fear psychosis” on Mullaperiyar row and sought thecourt’s direction, restraining the state from making any controversial statement. In an urgent application to

the apex court, Tamil Nadu alleged that Kerala, despite a status quo order by the apex court, was makingpublic statements on issues of pulling down the century-old dam and constructing a new one in its place.According to Tamil Nadu, the statements emanating from Kerala were “creating deep rooted animosities”between the people of the two states and posing grave threat to the peace and law and order situation inthe two neighbouring states. Chandy, who is on his way to Delhi, is slated to meet the Prime Minister andother Central leaders tomorrow to drum up support for the construction of a new dam in place of the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar reservoir, citing safety concerns. (Financial Express 2/12/11)Don’t acquire multi-crop irrigated land, state to Centre (4)Chandigarh: The Punjab government on Thursday recommended to the Centre that multi-crop irrigatedland should not be acquired under the proposed national land acquisition policy. While differing with thecentral proposal on several counts, it also recommended that rehabilitation and resettlement beapplicable only to those persons whose livelihood was dependent on land, excluding landowners, as theyare being compensated through the negotiated purchase price. A state government panel, which includedDeputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Adesh Partap Singh Kaironand Local Bodies and Industries Minister Tikhsan Sud, on Thursday declared that the land acquisitionpolicy of the state was the best in the country, as Punjab gives market rate. There has been hardly anylitigations after land was acquired in the state. Recommending that there was no need for a uniform landacquisition policy, the panel stated that the states should be given the freedom to decide on the policy.The panel also suggested that the government should be allowed to change the purpose for which landwas originally acquired. It added that when private companies purchase land, rehabilitation package asfar as land is concerned was already included in the market price, so there was no need to give thispackage to landowners. Once the total package was given, the additional compensation wasunwarranted, it added. The panel has pointed out that there was a need to clarify whether the consent oflandowners — who own 80 per cent of the area or the alternative consent of 80 per cent land owners —is to be obtained. Stating that consent of 80 per cent farmers and families will be difficult to obtain, itrecommended that a small farmer should be a person who has less than one hector of land. It added thatthe social impact assessment study will not only increase the cost of land acquisition, but also be moretime consuming. Therefore, it should only be done in cases where acquisition is more than 100 acres.According to sources, the panel also suggested that while calculating the minimum value of land, onlyvalue of large plots of more than one acre should be calculated. Moreover, only IAS officers should bemade the executive officer for land acquisition. It further recommended that acquisition of land for damsand canals was required to be put under emergency clause of public purposes. (Indian Express 2/12/11)SEZ scam: Parrikar lodges plaint (4)PANAJI: Claiming that the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) scam is to the tune of over 400 crore,opposition leader Manohar Parrikar on Friday lodged a complaint with director general of police AdityaArya to file a first information report (FIR) against former chief minister and speaker Pratapsingh Rane,former industries minister Luizinho Faleiro, Goa Industries Development Corporation chairmanChandrakant 'Babu' Kavlekar and others in the SEZ scam. Parrikar, in his complaint, said that theaccused have committed offences under Section 109,114,409,467,468,471 and 120(B) of IPC andSection 13(i)(d) read with Section 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Parrikar said that primafacie evidence has been attached to the complaint. "I informed the police that all the documents which arereferred to in the complaint, but not annexed, are in my possession. These maybe collected from me asand when the investigation agency deems fit," Parrikar said. He also demanded that the police shouldimmediately register a FIR and threatened to approach the judicial magistrate first class to seek directivesfor a FIR on his complaint. Parrikar said that Rane and others are in a position to influence theinvestigation and no police officer will have courage to question them. "I will also approach the high courtor Supreme Court for demanding that this inquiry is handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI)," the opposition leader added. Parrikar said his complaint is based on the findings of CAG report2008, where it is mentioned that due to SEZ allotment, the Goan exchequer had to face a loss of 102crore in allotting 86 plots for SEZs without following a transparent process. "The CAG has said that it is a102 crore loss, but my estimate is around 400-500 crore and I suspect kickbacks of 50 crore in the SEZscam," said Parrikar. (Times of India 3/12/11)

Plea to bring Mullaperiyar dam under Centre's control (4)TIRUCHI, December 9, 2011: The Bharathiya Krishak Samaj has called upon the Centre to enact a lawunder Article 262 of the Constitution to bring the Mullaperiyar dam under its control. In a resolutionadopted at its emergency meeting, chaired by D.Gurusamy, state president, here on Thursday, theorganisation said Parliament could by law provide for the adjudication of any inter-state river disputeunder Article 262, and courts could not interfere with such Act of Parliament. The Centre should bring thedam and the sharing of water from the dam under its control in view of the “extreme position” taken by theKerala government, which posed a threat to national integration and democracy, the resolution said. Theorganisation also criticised the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission K.G.Balakrishnan fortaking up for hearing a petition from Kerala MPs on the issue even while the Supreme Court was seizedof the matter. The commission could not hear the matter when the issue was pending before theSupreme Court, the organisation contended, and accused Mr.Balakrishnan of misusing his position. Themeeting resolved to submit a petition to the President seeking action against Mr.Balakrishnan. Throughother resolutions, the organisation urged the Centre to revise the minimum support price for farm producetaking into account the increase in the cost of inputs, especially the fertilizer price hike which has put aburden on farmers. The MSP for sugarcane should be fixed at Rs.3,000 a tonne. For paddy, the MSPshould be increased to Rs.2,000 a quintal, it demanded. The organisation also demanded that labourersemployed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme be allowed to bedeployed in private farms for agriculture labour. (The Hindu 6/12/11)Jharkhand minister attends anti-dam tribal meeting (4)Jamshedpur/Chaibasa, Dec 7 : Tribal Welfare and Transport Minister Champai Soren participated in ameeting of local tribals held at Kuju village of West Singhbhum today to oppose the construction of IchaDam under multi-million rupee Subarnarekha project. Mr Soren, while expressing solidarity, said he wouldsee to it that the dam, which can displace thousands of villagers by submerging 123 villages (87 inJharkhand and 36 in Orissa), was not constructed. ''I don’t want displacement. I am in favour of liftirrigation. I had been a part of the anti-dam movement,'' he stressed. A large number of tribals, mostlyform their dominant Ho community, organised a traditional village assembly- ‘Marang Dunub’ to electthree Manakis (community heads) prior to this meeting. The newly-elected leaders vowed to continue tooppose the construction of the Dam. Chaibasa MLA Deepak Birua, Akhil Bhartiya Aadivasi Mahasabhaworking president K C Mardi and vice president Mukesh Birua also addressed the meeting. TheSubarnarekha multipurpose project envisaged the construction of two dams, one at Chandil across theSubarnarekha and the other across the Kharkai at Icha near Chaibasa and two barrages at Galudihacross the Subarnarekha and the other across the Kharkai at Ganjia near Adityapur and a network ofcanals from these. Three small storage reservoirs and a network of canals from these reservoirs are inOrissa. Started in 1982-83, the project was planned for irrigation, hydropower generation and watersupply to Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal. While the Chandil dam and Galudih barrage are almostcomplete, the other components are still incomplete. (UNI) (New Kerala 8/12/11)3 more villages in Sonipat seek hike in land acquisition rate (4)SONIPAT: A few days after the government came up with revised compensation package to placatefarmers, who were opposing acquisition of land for Rajiv Gandhi Education City project, residents of threeneighbouring villages also launched an agitation demanding equal package for their land. Around 620acres land in Kundli, Kundli Garhi and Shersa villages was acquired by Haryana Industrial andInfrastructure Development Corporation ( HSIIDC) in 2007 for setting up industrial sector. Residents ofthese villages started an indefinite dharna at Kundli from Thursday in support of their demand. They havealso demanded market rates for their acquired land as well as other benefits being given under the newland acquisition policy of the state government. The Bhoomi Adhigrahan Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti, whichwas spearheading the education city agitation, has also announced support to the agitation. The stategovernment had announced to revise compensation package for nine villages, where around 2,000 acresof land had been acquired for the education city project, obviously under pressure from farmers, who hadapproached the court for revision of land prices. The government announced a three-and-a-half foldincrease in the compensation package recently, increasing per acre rate from Rs 12. 60 lakh to Rs 45.15lakh. Convener of agitating farmers at Kundli, Raj Kumar, alleged that their land was acquired at Rs 16lakh per acre and was being sold to industrialists at Rs 2-3 crore per acre. "It was injustice to the farmersand they must also be given market rates and other benefits under the government's new land acquisition

policy," he demanded. The fresh stir is likely to add to the problems of the government which was findingit tough to placate the farmers of Badkhalksa village whose dharna entered 132nd day on Thursday,demanding release of their land. (Times of India 10/12/11)Land acquisition hitches delay roads: govt (4)Highway development New Delhi: The government said problems in land acquisition was one of the mainfactors in delays in the implementation of National Highway Development projects. Answering queries onthe issue during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, CP Joshisaid, "Land acquisition is one of the factors contributing to delay in implementation of some projects underNHDP." Out of the 226 projects under implementation by NHAI, 58 projects are currently delayed due tomultiple reasons including land acquisition, he added. The issues causing hindrance in the NHAI projectsare forest clearance, poor performance of contractors and utility shifting. Joshi said protection of wildlifeduring acquisition of land should be ensured while the responsibility of forest clearance lay with the stategovernments. Supriya Sule (NCP) sought to know why environmental clearances are not taken at theinitial stage of the highways projects despite the authorities being aware that this is a must and causesdelay. Joshi said this issue is being looked into and assured the House that his ministry tried to avoid anyharm to wildlife in acquisition of land for the highways. On forest clearances he maintained that since thiswas to be done by the states, they should cooperate in giving the go-ahead. The ministry is also formingland acquisition units at the district and Tehsildar levels to smoothen the process. Shahnawaz Hussain(BJP) alleged that due to the "high-handed" attitude of the Planning Commission, all chief engineers ofNHAI had resigned and held Joshi and his ministry responsible for the problems. Joshi denied this, sayingthere was no conflict between his ministry and NHAI. nJoshi maintained that Rs 5,000 crore had beeninvested in the NHAI projects recently and 4,000 km of road projects sanctioned. He informed the Housethat 3,700 km of highways would be sanctioned every year for three consecutive years. NamaNageshwar Rao (TDP) wanted to know why the Road Transport and Highways Ministry was notmonitoring acquisition of land continously. Joshi said land is a state subject and the primary responsibilityfor this lay with the states. In reply to another question, Joshi said 'very effective measures' were beingtaken to address concerns about extending the roads and highways beyond Jammu in Jammu andKashmir. He maintained that his ministry was even looking at possibilities of improving road connectivitywith Leh and Ladakh. (The Financial Express 12/12/11)‘Delhi Metro can acquire land' (4)New Delhi, Dec. 13: The government on Tuesday said Delhi Metro can acquire land for propertydevelopment also. “Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (DMRC) has the right to use the land acquired forthe project for property development also,” the Union Minister of State for Urban Development, MrSaugata Roy, told Lok Sabha in response to a query. “Three hectares of land were acquired by DMRCunder the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 from a private party for Viswavidyalaya Metro Station. Out of this,two hectares have been leased out to M/s Young Builders for residential development,” he said. Mr Roysaid DMRC had informed the developer that he must plan his development strictly as per approvals fromthe Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and other civic authorities. Responding to another query, Mr Roysaid DMRC had given some land pockets on lease for commercial use to private parties. “The landpockets were given on lease/concession through open tenders. In cases, where no responses werereceived to tenders, the leasing was done through negotiation,” Mr Roy said. Keywords: propertydevelopment, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd, Viswavidyalaya Metro Station, Business Line 13/12/11)Violence at POSCO site very tragic:Naveen (4)Bhubaneswar, Dec 15 : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patanaik today expressed his deep shock over theviolence at the proposed POSCO site yesterday in which one person was killed and several were injuredafter pro and anti POSCO supporters clashed over the construction of coastal road. Describing theincident as 'very tragic', the chief minister told newspersons here that the matter would be looked into andaction taken as per law. ''What happened at POSCO is very tragic. I have already said I want peacefulindustrialisation in the state,'' the chief minister said. (UNI) (New Kerala 16/12/11)Infopark to employ over 80,000 persons within seven years (4)

KOCHI, December 17, 2011: Infopark Kochi, which is on a growth trajectory, is expected to create morethan five times the number of existing jobs in the next seven years. The park, which was set up in 2004,now houses 104 IT and related companies in IT complexes spread over 34 lakh sq.ft. “The jobopportunities offered by the park will go up from the existing 15,000 to more than 80,000 by 2018,”Infopark Kochi chief executive officer Gigo Joseph said. Infopark has registered almost a four-fold growthin software exports during the last five years. The increase in returns through exports from Rs.247.05crore in 2007-08 fiscal to Rs.900 crore during the last fiscal stands testimony to this growth. Also, the totalbuilt-up space offered by IT buildings leapfrogged from 5.30 lakh sq.ft to 34 lakh sq.ft, noted Mr. Joseph.The first phase of Infopark in 82 acres and 32 acres in the upcoming second phase had received SpecialEconomic Zone (SEZ) status. SEZ notification for 67 acres in the second phase is expected soon. TheCherthala Infopark, set up under the hub and spoke model development of Infopark Kochi, already had its60 acres declared as SEZ. Two-third of the existing built-up space of Infopark was developed withsupport from co-developers. In the next three years, the built-up space will be enhanced to 50 lakh sq.ft,which would create 40,000 jobs. Out of the 160 acres identified for the second phase development ofInfopark in Puthencruz and Kunnathunadu villages, land acquisition formalities of 125 acres had beenalready been completed. Once the second phase development projects are completed in the next sevenyears at an estimated cost of Rs.2,500 crore, the total space offered by Infopark will go up to 80 lakhsq.ft. This will include an IT complex of 12 lakh sq.ft to be set up with the financial assistance to the tuneof Rs.260 crore during the 12th five year plan. Apart from investments worth Rs.450 crore by the Stategovernment, developers are expected to chip in with Rs.2,050 crore. The development projects havebeen planned in a manner that will benefit small and medium IT companies as well. At CherthalaInfopark, which was commissioned in January this year, 1,000 jobs were created in the first phase. Apartfrom land value, an investment to the tune of Rs.75 crore was made there. It has a building complex witha built-up space of 2.40 lakh sq.ft. In the Koratty Infopark, another spoke of Infopark Kochi, 50,000 sq.fthad been readied with 400 persons being employed with 24 companies. “Steps for securing SEZ statusfor the Koratty park will be taken after acquiring another 15 acres,” Mr. Joseph said. (The Hindu 17/12/11)TCS to set up Rs 600 cr campus in Nagpur (4)MUMBAI: The country's largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services today said it will build a newsoftware development unit in Maharashtra at an initial investment of Rs 600 crore, creating jobs for over8,200 professionals. The campus will be located at Nagpur, Maharashtra, in the Mihan Special EconomicZone ( SEZ), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said in a filing to the BSE. "Nagpur has the potential tobecome the next big hub for knowledge-based industries like IT and engineering with its strong ecosystemof universities, talented people and infrastructure," TCS CEO and MD N Chandrasekaran said.The TCS Nagpur campus will be build in two phases, the first of which will contain 8,200 seats for ITSEservices and BPO services. The second phase will be of similar scope, it said. Once the project iscompleted, the campus will accommodate 16,000 associates, the filing added. Shares of TCS weretrading at Rs 1,120.25 apiece on the BSE today, down 2.03 per cent from their previous close. (Times ofIndia 19/12/11)Land acquisition the main hurdle for infrastructure projects (4)CHENNAI: Problems in acquiring land are the biggest impediment to infrastructure projects in the state.Of the 600 hectares needed for the 224 projects in the state, the highways department has managed toacquire just 77 hectares. In Greater Chennai, there are 80 projects requiring 276 hectares but a mere 45hectares have been acquired. "Any project we take up invariably ends up in land acquisition cases. Thisis the biggest reason for delays," said a highways official. In Chennai, the worst-affected are the flyoversat Porur, Tirumangalam and Moolakadai. At Porur, where 9,600 sq m of land had to be acquired from 126people, there has been no work "since March. Land acquisition was completed in July, but now utilityagencies not cooperating," said a highways official. "We took over two years to convince everyone to partwith their land," he said. "If everything goes smoothly, the process should not take more than a year," headded. "It should have been completed in August 2011 but only 10% has been finished." Land acquisitioneats up most the cost. "Of the total of Rs 35 crore, Rs 19 crore has been set aside for compensating landowners," said an official. Such delays, contractors say, increase their expenditure. "While submitting thetenders, we quote the price taking into account the current market rates of material. With these delays,our costs have already increased," said a contractor. At Moolakadai, "we notified the owners in June 2009but haven't acquired any land so far," said an official. "Only 5.15% of the project is complete and the

overall cost has already increased by Rs 1 crore." Just 20% of the Rs 57-crore flyover at Tirumangalamhas been completed when around 35% should have been over. The deadline is December 14, 2012. "It isannoying to see no work happening. We have been suffering for the last two years. I take at least 15minutes to cross that junction," said K Suresh, a commuter. Similarly affected is the bridge planned overthe Ennore Creek where around 1,700 sq m of land had to be acquired. "Everyone agreed except one. Ifhe agrees, we can start work on both sides of the bridge," said an official. "We should have finished 40%by now but have managed only 24%," he added. In the last two years, persons who land is sought forinfrastructure projects have been compensated with commercial rates rather than the guideline value (therate fixed by the government). "There is a lot of negotiation as people want the market value for their land.Sometimes, people are too attached to give up their land," said a senior highways official. Those whoselands are acquired for projects are affected the most, while those whose lands are close to the project sitebenefit as the value goes up. "There has to be an equitable way of distributing land and the benefits of thenew project," says Shirley Ballaney, Ahmedabad-based town planner. (Times of India 21/12/11)NBA activists court arrest (4)Bhopal, Dec 22 : Hundreds of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activists -- affected due to OmkareshwarDam Project on the Narmada River -- today courted arrest on the concluding day of their two-day sit-in atIqbal Maidan here. The agitators took out a rally from Iqbal Maidan to Chief Minister's residence, but theywere prevented near Kamala Park before courting arrest. In a statement here, NBA leader Alok Agrwalsaid residents of five villages under Dewas district were being deprived of getting the benefit of landacquisition and they were agitating over the issue. ''The villagers will intensify agitation if their demandsare not fulfilled,'' he said. Mr Agrawal said state regime decided to rehabilitate the affected people byacquiring the land in 2007. But when the oustsees demanded land in lieu of their acquired land underResettlement and Rehabilitation Policy, the government decided to provide barren and encroached land.He claimed that hundreds of tribals would be affected due to submerging of the villages. (UNI) (NewKerala 23/12/11)Land acquisition bottlenecks irk Jindal (4)JAMSHEDPUR: The concern of the medium and small industries were underscored by Jindal Steel andPower Limited (JSPL) managing director Naveen Jindal in his observations on the delay in landacquisition for the company's proposed 5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) greenfield project atAsanbani in Potka block of East Singhbhum dsitrict. Jindal, who was here on Saturday on a private visit,expressed anguish over inordinate delay in moving ahead with the Asanbani plant in wake of adequateland availability. Although he hailed the rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) policy of the stategovernment but in the same vein he expressed pain over delay in acquisition of land for commissioning ofthe project on schedule. "The R&R policy of the state government is good but land acquisition is still abothering issue for the industry," said Jindal. A senior company official on Sunday said if bottlenecks vis-A-vis land acquisition for Asanbani plant fails to get resolved soon then other options would be explored. Ofthe initially required 416 acres, JSPL has acquired about 250 acres in Asanbani so far for the proposedintegrated steel plant project worth Rs 11,500 crore. The company now plans to commission thegreenfield project in mid-2015. The Adityapur-based 1,000-plus small industries, which are expecting aboost to their business with the start of the JSPL and upcoming 3 MTPA steel plant of Bhusan Power andSteel Ltd in Potka, fear the big investors will wind up their project if land acquisition continued to remain abig problem in the long run. "If the land acquisition problem is not addressed on priority basis then the biginvestors could move to other favourable destinations and eventually it is the local ancillaries that willloose the business opportunity," said Santosh Khetan, the general secretary of Adityapur Small IndustriesAssociation. The Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) also expressed its fearsimilarly. "The government should come forward and help assist the business houses in securing land forthe project. The big corporate houses could find business elsewhere but what about the ancillaries thatare completely dependent on the growth of the big-ticket investors," said SCCI secretary Bharat Vasani.The Laghu Udyog Bharati (LUB) also expressed fear. "In the interest of the small industries, thegovernment should expedite its bid to address the bottlenecks for scheduled commissioning of the biginvestment plants," said N K Singh, a senior functionary of the LUB. (Times of India 26/12/11)

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land acquisition/sez & displacement â 2011 - Indian Social Institute