Sonia: Tiller's land not for miller

At a time when infrastructure projects across the country face a land acquisition challenge, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has said fertile and productive land should not be lost to industrialisation. The statement came just two days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh emphasised at an editors' conference the importance of industrial development, both for employment generation and poverty reduction.

While Gandhi referred to “fertile and productive land”, the Prime Minister's statement was about rural land in general. Hence, there is no inherent contradiction between the two statements. In fact, Gandhi said, “New industries and infrastructure cannot be built without acquiring land… but land acquisition must be done in a manner that does not result in the loss of large tracts of fertile and productive land that is so essential to grow foodgrains for our people.”

However, Gandhi's statement assumes importance since she was speaking at a function organised by the country's largest power producer, NTPC Ltd, which has sought compensation of around Rs2,000 crore from the government to scrap its power plant in Uttarakhand.

After dedicating to the nation Stage-II of NTPC’s power project in Dadri, Gandhi said farmers must be provided with adequate compensation and alternative occupations, though she praised Congress-ruled Haryana for having a progressive law in this regard.

“We definitely need to generate more power for our farmers' needs, factories and industries, but at the same time we must protect the environment to ensure sustainable development,” she said.

Gandhi’s son and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi recently met the Prime Minister seeking a new law on the acquisition of agricultural land. The government plans to bring in a new land acquisition Bill in the next session of Parliament.

The government has faced criticism for pushing the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill and not showing similar enthusiasm for amending land acquisition legislation that was originally framed in 1894. The UPA chairperson, who also heads the National Advisory Council that advises the government on key policy issues, emphasised the need to promote nuclear power generation in the country. “In the future, attention should be given to clean and renewable energy. NTPC is gearing up to enter the field of nuclear energy. It has also taken steps to expand the utilisation of green and solar energy on a large scale," Gandhi added.

In August, the ministry of environment and forests had scrapped NTPC’s 600-Mw Loharinag Pala hydel power project on the river Bhagirathi in Uttarakhand on environmental and religious grounds. NTPC had already spent Rs 650 crore on the project, with a commitment of Rs 2,000 crore for which orders had been placed. The power ministry is considering ways to compensate NTPC for this project.

With the commissioning of Stage II of the Dadri project, the total capacity of the power plant has gone up to 2,637 Mw, which includes the 840 Mw Stage-I, 980 Mw Stage-II and 817 Mw gas-based.