The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 (LARRB) coming up for discussion in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday continues to be anti-farmer.
The National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM) pointed out that the Parliamentary Committee on Rural Development had recommended that all agricultural land under cultivation be kept out of the purview of land acquisition.
But the revised LARRB has left this decision in the domain of the state governments which will also decide how much irrigated land in a district can be acquired.
Activist Medha Patkar warned that 75 per cent of Indian farmers engaged in rain-fed agriculture would have the sword of Damocles hanging over their head having to contend with both land grab and eviction.
“Already 180 lakh hectares of agricultural land has been diverted. How will the UPA ensure a huge amount of food required for the Food Security Bill if they continue to brazenly acquire land from farmers?” Ms Patkar asked.
The second major recommendation by the standing committee that the government and infrastructure projects also receive the consent of affected land losers has also been diluted. The NA PM maintained that exclusion of government and infrastructure projects would make the bill “lame”.
“The government is acquiring millions of has of land for industrial corridors. The Delhi, Mumbai industrial corridor alone will require 3,60,000 has of land and all this will be excluded from the bill,” said Ms Patkar.
Finally, NAPM also stressed that the new rehabilitation and resettlement provisions seemed more cash based and were not based at providing an alternative livelihood as a mandatory measure.