Before you read the suggestions for a pro-farmer, pro-development land acquisition act here is
a brief description of the fallout of the old act.
1] The horrors of the archaic and anarchic British period land acquisition act
Since independence lakhs and lakhs of acres of agricultural land have been forcibly acquired for
various purposes from the farmers and tribal people by successive state governments and the
central government without giving them sufficient compensation and rehabilitation; destroying
the livelihood of millions of those farmers, tribals, and farm workers; displacing them from their
habitats and forcibly make them migrate to other places in search of livelihood. The grief,
sorrow, and trauma suffered by these people is insurmountable and unparallel in the history of
human civilization and it is the most significant damage inflicted on them by the so-called democratic
leaders produced by modern democracy in the name of development meant for the
selected few. In the process, the first-generation contractors, the industrialists, and political
leaders of free India have helped themselves transform from millionaires to billionaires. Some
of them got rankings in Forbes magazine. But the status of the farmers remains the same all
these years, without any visible improvement in their lives. In fact, the plight of farmers
worsened further, and the testimony to this fact is the ever-increasing farm suicides every year
and from every part of the country. The contractors, industrialists, and businessmen are
becoming the lawmakers and they are doing everything to protect and expand their empires,
and they are doing nothing to provide even basic services to the majority of the citizens.
The farmers won’t get jobs in the industries which are built on their lands, they won’t get
corporate medical treatment in the hospital that is built on their lands, they won’t get
subsidized power for their homes even if they lose their lands for power plants, they won’t get
concessions on tickets in railways and at toll gates on highways which are constructed on their
lands, their children won’t get seats in the colleges and universities that are established on
their lands. But the industrialists who got the lands and the political leaders who helped them
get the lands at cheap or nominal value are enjoining all concessions, tax write-offs, subsidies,
one-time settlements on loan defaults, special privileges, and VIP treatments. The net result
derived from the 58 years of rule in the world’s largest democratic nation is such that 99% of
the country’s wealth has been precipitated into the hands of the super-rich who constitute just
1 % of the population
For more on this please click the below link
Pro farmer, pro industry land acqisition act
