Zones of conflict

Zones of conflict

With sezs poised for take-off, real estate developers are clamouring to get their hands on vast expanses of land. The centre has given its blessings, final or preliminary, to 364 sezs. The euphoria notwithstanding, at the ground level, a period of intense contestation is brewing -- over land, between farmers who are going to be dispossessed and those who covet their only source of livelihood.

Across the country -- Orissa, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal -- threatened folk, like Hundal, are massing together, hoping that united, they will, indeed, stand. The threat of massive displacement and the government's pathetic record on rehabilitation imparts urgency to the situation. The protest against sezs gains momentum as the list of special zones gets longer.Faced with mounting resistance -- Singur in West Bengal, Kalinga Nagar in Orissa, Navi Mumbai, Amritsar -- mounted by farmers, pressure from allies, mainly the Left, and divisions of opinion within the government, Congress president Sonia Gandhi tried to limit the damage, saying good farmland should not be diverted for industry and, wherever possible, sezs should come up on wasteland or 'not very good' farmland. Since land is a state subject, states have been directed to ensure that not more than 10 per cent of land acquired for an sez is fertile or multicropped. They have been asked to allot mostly wasteland, barren land or, in some cases, monocropped land. Even so, acquisition of prime agricultural land is underway. (see box How the west, east and the rest of the country is being won)
G K Pillai, special secretary, department of commerce, insists that no farmer has been displaced. Most of the formal approvals and the issues of farmland acquisition and displacement are exaggerated, he argues. But it is important to note that out of the 212 formal approvals till now only 32 have been notified, with a total land area of only 1,723 hectares. This is a minuscule part of the land that has been or will be acquired for the 364 projects formally approved till October 10, which amounts to 147,224 ha, somewhat more than the area of the national capital region. Though land acquisition, even for projects that have not been approved, like the Reliance sez in Dadri, has been on since 2002, policymakers are yet to work out how large tracts can be freed.

"The SEZ will create infrastructure for services, manufacturing and agri-business. The challenge for us is to think in terms of 'Team India', so we can compete globally with countries like China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Dubai."   MUKESH AMBANI, QUOTED IN THE HINDU

With such acquisition comes the issue of compensation. The centre has already said that a uniform rate is not possible. "The contract here is unfair since the land is taken over at the current rate or lower. But as soon as the sez starts coming up, the rates shoot up and the farmer who has been displaced cannot buy alternative land. This creates further inequalities," says Bibek Debroy, secretary-general, phd Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The role of the state is proactive and widely perceived to be dodgy. In most cases, the state acquires the land from farmers under the pretext of public interest, using the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and sells it to the sez developer. "Why is the state involved in acquisition? On the one hand, the state is unwilling to give subsidies to the farmers and, on the other, it intervenes to acquire land. If you say that you are going by the market, let the buyers and sellers negotiate. At least, be honest," says V P Singh, former prime minister and convenor, Jan Morcha.

Ironically, the sez bubble and the land acquisition programme that accompanies it have starkly exposed the stratification in agrarian society. Most farmers' unions in Punjab that are collaborating to protest against sezs are headed by rich farmers; other voices are muted. "The voice of the landless labourers and of the most marginalised is unheard. The contest has been whittled down to the issue of compensation for landowners -- a fight between big farmers and industry. We are forgetting that the most marginalised in backward districts engage in single-cropping," says Mansi Asher of the National Centre for Advocacy Studies (ncas), Pune. Their voices are important because the focus of acquisition has turned to 'wastelands' -- the subsistence resource of the poorest.

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