No man’s land Push legislative and administrative reform to solve land problem
The Financial Express, December 23, 2009, Page 8
ON Monday, Ratan Tata suggested that land reform is critical if the Indian growth N Monday, Ratan Tata suggested that land reform is critical if the Indian growth story is to power forward. He should know. Tata Motors had almost finished building its factory in Singur, when continuous protests over land acquisition forced it to abandon the project. That was in 2008. This year, an Infosys IT park faced similar troubles in Rajarhat in Bengal. Interestingly, Monday's other development was that the Bengal Assembly passed a Bill that would allow it to take bank land leased to industries that have closed. Applying to a wide range of jute, heavy engineering, hosiery, foundry and textile units that have stopped operations, the state's land & land reforms minister Abdur Mollah says that the new legislation will enable his government to take possession of land lying idle.
The problem is that this is the same minister who had recently admitted to irregularities in the land acquisition for the Vedic Village in Rajarhat. It's his government that mismanaged the Singur-Tata issue. The problem is that the Centre has been lethargic about amending a colonial-era land acquisition Act, a lethargy that in no small measure is on account of the coalition partner that helped escalate the Singur-Tata issue beyond resolution.
New legislation is urgently needed to streamline land acquisitions to facilitate industrial projects--also power plants, highways and other infrastructure projects. And this is not an agriculture vs industry issue, whatever the ideologues may bellow. As a recent agrarian relations and land reforms committee report has pointed out, 80% of the Indians engaged in agriculture own just 17% of the country's land. Locked into dismal economies of small plots, stagnating production and labour-intensive techniques, they will never become a part of any growth story unless their access to infrastructure and non-farm employment improves. This won't happen till land use is liberalised. This, in turn, means, various land banks--including those unproductively held by the government--need to become transparently available. A radical proposal in this regard is that an extensive survey be mobilised to zone the country between the most fertile and productive agricultural land and the areas that can be used for different kinds of development. Reducing the land logjam also means unproductive regulations involving land ceilings, conversions, and the like need to be pushed to the wayside. Echoing Tata, Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy referred to how India's floor-area ratio needs to improve from the current 1:1 to 1:15.
When laws unreasonably restrict the supply of land or politicise its distribution, and when such land is desperately needed to improve the lot of the common man, then the laws need to be changed. As soon as possible.
The Financial Express, December 23, 2009, Page 8
ON Monday, Ratan Tata suggested that land reform is critical if the Indian growth N Monday, Ratan Tata suggested that land reform is critical if the Indian growth story is to power forward. He should know. Tata Motors had almost finished building its factory in Singur, when continuous protests over land acquisition forced it to abandon the project. That was in 2008. This year, an Infosys IT park faced similar troubles in Rajarhat in Bengal. Interestingly, Monday's other development was that the Bengal Assembly passed a Bill that would allow it to take bank land leased to industries that have closed. Applying to a wide range of jute, heavy engineering, hosiery, foundry and textile units that have stopped operations, the state's land & land reforms minister Abdur Mollah says that the new legislation will enable his government to take possession of land lying idle.
The problem is that this is the same minister who had recently admitted to irregularities in the land acquisition for the Vedic Village in Rajarhat. It's his government that mismanaged the Singur-Tata issue. The problem is that the Centre has been lethargic about amending a colonial-era land acquisition Act, a lethargy that in no small measure is on account of the coalition partner that helped escalate the Singur-Tata issue beyond resolution.
New legislation is urgently needed to streamline land acquisitions to facilitate industrial projects--also power plants, highways and other infrastructure projects. And this is not an agriculture vs industry issue, whatever the ideologues may bellow. As a recent agrarian relations and land reforms committee report has pointed out, 80% of the Indians engaged in agriculture own just 17% of the country's land. Locked into dismal economies of small plots, stagnating production and labour-intensive techniques, they will never become a part of any growth story unless their access to infrastructure and non-farm employment improves. This won't happen till land use is liberalised. This, in turn, means, various land banks--including those unproductively held by the government--need to become transparently available. A radical proposal in this regard is that an extensive survey be mobilised to zone the country between the most fertile and productive agricultural land and the areas that can be used for different kinds of development. Reducing the land logjam also means unproductive regulations involving land ceilings, conversions, and the like need to be pushed to the wayside. Echoing Tata, Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy referred to how India's floor-area ratio needs to improve from the current 1:1 to 1:15.
When laws unreasonably restrict the supply of land or politicise its distribution, and when such land is desperately needed to improve the lot of the common man, then the laws need to be changed. As soon as possible.
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1 comment:
The farmers with their small plots
are always at loss by agriculture.
The political aprty to get the vtes of the masses use fear mongering to get to power.The only way the poor could get to the middle class is by education or by productive business.The fertile land should be made into cooperatives and mechanised to make agriculture a profitable business.I cannot think of the laders of communust party agrre to uplift the poor.THen they wont get
masses to shout their stupid slogans and vote them to power
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