2011 West Bengal State Elections' Impact on Land Reforms

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Solutions
But Mukhopadhyay feels it is a step in the right direction. He feels if it's a just and non-partisan government then it can always intervene if it sees people being exploited. "Since it has formal coercive powers, if the government is not fair then there is all the more reason for it to stop directly acquiring the land on behalf of any private entity," he reasons.

However, experts across the board, including industry representatives and protesting activists, feel that government has to think of solutions beyond resorting to land acquisition at the first instance.
Assocham is asking for a land bank. The delays in industrial projects like those of ArcelorMittal have happened because the government signed MoUs promising land without having acquired it first. As a result, the government often forces the issue while acquiring land in order to meet the stiff deadline it has committed to the private player. The ensuing haste and insensitive handling results in protests.

Illustration: Malay Karmakar

"The government has set out to promote industrialisation by offering land for industry without first setting its house in order. Updated land records, developed land banks in different pockets within states, facilitation for land acquisition etc. should have been the primary set of tasks," says Chatterjee.
Sreedhar concurs. "Successive governments over the years have shown great urgency in acquiring land on one count or another without even bothering to first make an inventory of the already acquired land or thinking of some alternative."

Since the 1960s, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation had been acquiring land for exploratory drilling in Gujarat. However, by 2007, ONGC had about 500 hectares in Ankaleshwar and Bharuch which was of no use to it since the oil wells had been closed. Sreedhar, who was advising the Gujarat government in 2007, says that the law did not provide any method by which ONGC could hand back the land.
As of now, the situation will be in limbo till next year. The lure of the chair is too much for any political party to take a strong stance on the subject.

Additional reporting by Prince Mathews Thomas

By Udit Misra, K.P. Narayana Kumar/ Forbes India

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