Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Jamnagar farmers clutch at 2013 law to get their land back -Maulik Pathak

Jamnagar farmers clutch at 2013 law to get their land back -Maulik Pathak

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Aug 20, 2015   modified Modified on Aug 20, 2015
-Livemint.com

The petitioners have pinned their hopes on a clause in the 2013 land law that the government is now planning to amend
 
Punjabhai Modhwadia, 42, isn’t giving up his land. Not without a fight.

Sitting under a banyan tree overlooking fields of cotton, jowar and groundnut, next to what Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani called one of the biggest construction sites in the world, the Jamnagar farmer describes why he and 11 others moved court over a troubled land acquisition.

For Modhwadia, who arrived in the fertile Jamnagar village of Kalanus three decades ago, forced by a famine in his native Porbandar, this land with copious water was heaven: “We take crops three times a year and it yields an income of about Rs.20 lakh annually. This farm has supported me and my family for years. They want us to leave. I ask, why should I leave now? I don’t want money. I want to live on my land,” says Modhwadia. His 25-member family depends on the farm for its livelihood.

Modhwadia is one of those farmers whose land was acquired by the Gujarat government for the special economic zone (SEZ) that RIL has been building since 2006. Along with other farmers, he moved the high court in August 2014. They are clutching at a particular clause in the stringent 2013 land law, which the central government is now trying to scrap.

The farmers say under Section 24(2) of the 2013 Act, land acquired for private purposes should be returned if compensation is not paid and if farmers retain land for five years or more.

The lawsuit adds a new twist to the political fisticuffs over amendments to the land acquisition bill, which are variously perceived as anti-farmer and reformist.

The case pertains to about 30 hectares, part of 4,494 hectares across five villages, including Kanachhikari, Derachhikari, Kanalus, Navagam and Padana, that RIL got in 2008.

The petition, a copy of which was reviewed by Mint, says while records show the land is held by RIL, farmers continue to hold possession and farm the land. It says it’s been six years since the purchase, six years during which they refused compensation and continued farming, which means under section 24 (2) of the 2013 law, the land should be returned to them.

According to Alok Prasanna Kumar, senior resident fellow at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, an independent legal policy advisory group, if possession is not taken or compensation not paid for awards made before 27 September 2013, it is assumed that the proceedings have lapsed.

The case will have ramifications as similar cases could be filed and pose a challenge to the central government which wants to relax the stringent conditions of the 2013 law, said Faizan Mustafa, vice-chancellor, Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad. “The opposition would get a lot of ammunition out of this case,” he said.

One of the proposed amendments to the 2013 law seeks to delete the clause on which the farmers have pinned their hopes. With the opposition-dominated Rajya Sabha refusing to clear the changes, the government has repeatedly reissued an ordinance that contains these amendments.

However, Vidhi Center for Legal Policy’s Kumar said that it’s unlikely that the proposed amendments will have any impact as they do not fundamentally change this position of law.

Modhwadia says chemical discharges in the vicinity have contaminated groundwater, leading to skin diseases and crop damage. Mint could not independently verify these claims.

Less than half a kilometre from Modhwadia’s farm, behind the walls of the SEZ, one can see the tops of many cranes at work.

Trucks and dumpers have taken over the 10km stretch from Sapar to Kanalus. RIL is carrying out the third phase of expansion of the SEZ, where it plans to set up a unit that will produce several petrochemical products.

Moti Khavdi and nearby villages, once nondescript areas where RIL set up its first refinery in the 1990s, are now an industrial hub. Currently RIL operates a 33 million tonne (mt) refinery in domestic-tariff area that sells most of its products to domestic market, and a 29 mt SEZ unit.

Mehulbhai Khetiya, whose father Narbheshanker Khetiya is one of the petitioners, says farmers cannot get loans or crop insurance now as their names are not on the records. “We cannot even apply for an electricity connection,” says Mehulbhai, who has sown jowar seeds in his Sapar village. He relies on diesel pumps.

Khetiya says while no boundary walls have been built around their land, the company has laid 25 large stones bearing the RIL logo to demarcate its land. He says his family has four land parcels it is fighting to save in the court.

At a rally in Bhopal in May, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah had declared that not an inch of farmers’ land would be given away to industrialists as alleged by the opposition Congress. Even if farmers had to give up land, they would be duly compensated, he said.

Hitendrasinh Jadeja, 38, whose father Kanaksinh Jhorubha is a petitioner in the case, said the petitioners moved court jointly since they did not have the resources to fight independently.

“We cannot do any new construction, cannot even put a pipeline or a bore-well for drawing water as our names are not on the land records. But the village sarpanch has given us in writing that we are in possession of our land and we continue to till it,” Jadeja said. He added that there were likely more farmers who haven’t handed over their land.

Vidhi Centre’s Kumar cites the Supreme Court case of Pune Municipal Corporation vs Harakchand where the acquisition proceedings were declared lapsed since compensation was not paid on time.

Anand Yagnik who represents the farmers told the court in June that excluding residential areas, almost the entire farmland in five villages and grazing land and waste land, adding up to 1,333 hectares owned by the state, was acquired.

In response to an emailed query, RIL said, “The matter is subjudice and hence we cannot comment on it. Also, the matter, though was listed since last 3 to 4 months, has not been heard substantially by the high court. Only the advocate for the petitioners put forward his case on 18-06-2015. The turn of the advocate general of the government and advocate of Reliance has not yet come. In the absence of arguments from our side as also from government side, the matter has reached the press one sided i.e. from petitioners’ side. It is an injustice to Reliance that the case has not only got delayed but has also reached the press even before it is argued before the high court by our as well as government advocates. According to us, it is premature to give our version at this juncture.”

A state government official involved in the matter said, “The state government has sent its remarks to the court on the matter but so far we haven’t got the chance to represent our side as further hearing in the matter is pending. As the matter is subjudice, we cannot share more details at this point.”

In a twist to this case, a bench of the high court that was hearing this case—and that included then acting chief justice V.M Sahai—recused itself on June 22 after admitting the case three days earlier.

At the time, chief justice Sahai told the court, “Whatever has happened in the last two to three days has shaken our confidence and hence we do not wish to hear this matter in order to avoid any further controversy. We want to distance ourselves from all controversies. Even though we passed an order to hear this matter in backdrop of the matter which was heard by an earlier bench but it could not be completed due to lapse of time. We refer this matter to be heard before a division bench that does not include any of us.” The second judge on the two-member bench was justice R.P. Dholaria. The bench did not elaborate on the events that shook its confidence.

Sahai, who retired on 12 August, passed an order on his last day in office that the matter be further heard by a special division bench consisting of justices Kalpesh Jhaveri and G.B. Shah.

Yagnik has challenged this move, saying that the bench comprising new acting chief justice J.M. Patel, should hear the matter as all land related matters are heard by this bench

For Modhwadia and his comrades, the struggle to get the farms they till back in their names got a little longer.


Livemint.com, 19 August, 2015, http://www.livemint.com/Politics/tFk0ccWGTTIuJKjPylY6IK/Jamnagar-farmers-clutch-at-2013-law-to-get-their-land-back.html


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close