The Central Issue Of Land

Does any government, central or state, have a solution to this problem? Incredible as it may seem, after 20 years of increasingly bitter struggle, that has delayed urgently needed investment by not just years, but on occasion decades, it does not. At this precise moment the Karnataka government is painfully trying to fend off a spate of litigation and obtain the 1,000 acres that Cogentrix needs. But this battle cannot be fought on a case by case basis. There are 275 more private power projects in the pipeline, without which the country will never be able to maintain its present growth rate. But that is only the beginning of the need for land. The country has to build at least 14,000 kms of highways, over the next decade to have a halfway decent transport system. The minimum width of land needed for such highways is 30 metres, although 50 metres may well be needed to make a provision for future widening. This means that another 420 to 700 sq kms, i.e 108,000 to 175,000 acres of land will have to be obtained, of which at least a third will be private land. If intersections, rest stops and service areas and other requirements are taken into account the amount could be a quarter more. Just how long does the government think it will fight to obtain this land? Has it calculated the cost of the delays that will result? It is a sobering thought that till the mid-eighties, the average time taken to complete major and medium hydel projects in this country was 21 years, of which more than half was accounted for by the acquisition of land.

 

The plain truth that the World Bank's withdrawal from Narmada, from the Bombay-Ahmedabad superhighway project, and most recently from an urban development project have all occurred over the question of delays or environmental objections to land acquisition. This clearly cannot go on. There is, however, a way of getting around this problem that has in addition a host of other political and economic benefits. It has been used already in a number of other developing countries. What is surprising is that it has not even found its way into the manifesto of a single political party in India so far.

This is to not to expropriate, or buy out the landowners, but to offer them a share of the revenue or profit from the enterprise. This will make them partners, in the project