Letters: When land costs

Apropos Nitin Desai's article "The wrong land war" (May 21), it cannot be denied that the main hurdle in infrastructure development is land acquisition. The original land acquisition Act framed in the British era was devoted to acquiring land for public purposes. Nothing was meant for private purposes. After independence, the scope was expanded to envelop other development activities.

It is a fact that gigantic works such as the Sardar Sarovar dam and Tehri dam were stopped for want of proper compensation. These problems were settled by state governments after negotiations with farmers. It is emphasised that the state governments had issued instructions that no project should be taken without having clear possession of land. Despite this, projects are cleared. The figure of 804 projects stalled for unfavourable conditions and loss of promoters' interest is not portraying the true picture. This is ignoring the environmental deterioration, in addition to supplying wrong figures of land acquired.

The Economic Survey has also bypassed the cost of individual projects. If further studies are conducted, it would be revealed that the cost of 66 projects - stalled on account of land acquisition - would not be less than other projects highlighted, as these carry heavy costs.

The solution to this problem lies in taking the public into confidence and imparting the optimum benefits to them.

Sushil Bakliwal, Jaipur

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