The problems the farmers face due to land acquisition have not been understood, appreciated and attended to. It is doubtful that the so called R&R ( relief and rehabilitation) package being thought of, will really remedy the problems being faced by the farmers. No serious effort has been made to even understand the problems faced by the farmers. Some of the major issues are highlighted below: 1. Once big chunks of land are acquired, the land rate of the area shoots up manifold. This is aagravated by the delay of 3 to 4 years in making payment for the land acquired. The end result is that the farmers cannot buy another land in nearby area. So much so that with compensation solace-ium interest, a farmer of Gurgaon can't even buy a plot of 100 sq yd in place of 5000 sq yd taken from him. The very system of calculating market value is faulty and intentionally so. The real test of market value is that a person can buy from the open market equal amount of land with the compensation received, whenever it may be paid. Amount paid to provide solace is not to be mixed up with compensation. 2. The Haryana Govt has taken 4 years to pay compensation for the houses, while as per the law maximum 3 years is allowed. They have not paid the interest for one year. This is a case of high-handed-ness and reveals the attitude of the concernd authorities. 3. While paying the compensation for the houses, the officials got the valuation done by the employees of Reliance. Naturally, they were not impartial and acted in favour of Reliance and against the farmers. 4. The method of calculating compensation followed is that for A class construction, a rate of Rs.1600 per sq mtr of covered area was the base. After this depreciation of about 1% pa was deducted. Assuming that a house was built in 1980-81 the amount of Rs.1600 per sq mtr became Rs.125 per sq ft. The correct method should be to apply Cost Inflation Index of 519 on the cost of Rs.1600 per sq mtr, which is the law for working out cost of buildings for Capital gains etc. As per the laughable method followed by the assessors, the Parliament House spread over 6 acres, which costed Rs.83 lakhs in 1927, will now, after 80 years and thus 80% depreciation, be worth Rs.16.6 lakhs!! Will the Govt hand over The Parliament House to a private developer for Rs.16.6 lakhs? If not, then why is it valuing farmers houses in this manner? 5. It stands to reason that the farmers will be allowed to use the small patches of land left to earn their livelihood. For this they need to be given a CLU ( Change of Land Use ). But even this has not been done. If this was allowed, the farmers could have opened shops, workshops, built residential units etc.. 6. Right to profession ( means of livelihood ) and right to a dwelling are basic needs and linked to Right to Life. What is not being appreciated is that the farmers are being denied the RIGHT TO LIFE!!!! 7. As the Haryana Govt. auctios land at rates between 25 crore to 100 crore per acre, if it auctions a fraction of land acquired in the market, it can give a compensation of even Rs.1 crore per acre at no cost to itself. 8. Similarly it can create residential sector for thr evacuees/ refugees whose houses have been demolished, out of a small fraction of the very land acquired. Thus at no cost to the Govt. displaced persons could be rehabilitated.
All the policy changes WITH RESPECT TO LAND ACQUISITION are good and well understood. But this is not the solution of the problem. This type of changes are part time remidies for current problem but one should think of a COMPREHENSIVE POLICY for the entire development of the SEZ. Its not only land acquisition, but the demarcation of processing and non processing area, custom bonded area, contiguity of land, size of the development, govt . agencies involved. Its not only economic & fiscal policies but one has to understand that it is a PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT, A CITY PLANNING. Planning is a process, its not a chemical reaction. The development will take time so spend as much time in planning and amendment ofthe policy, act etc. before starting the physical work. Our policy is still not a comprehensive one. We can not coy other countries for such development. Our physical settings, our understanding is completely defferent from other countries.
First give appropriate time on planning the policies, acts and get togetther towards act, because if we have planned properly, the change of government (4-5) yrs will not effect the development of EZ as it will take 10-15 yrs for coming up.
