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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Land acquisition challenges can be overcome by S Sanandakumar

Land acquisition challenges can be overcome by S Sanandakumar

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published Published on Jul 31, 2011   modified Modified on Jul 31, 2011

Kerala has not been very successful in the past to consistently attract big-ticket investments . The absence of strategic investments in key sectors has always been a hurdle in the state's path to economic prosperity. The new chief ministerOommen Chandy, known for speedy decision-making , wants to change this scenario. He has already been able to swing public opinion in his favour by addressing long-pending issues such as the Smart City project and the Kochi Metro Rail project.

The immediate priority for his government is to make Kerala investorfriendly , he says. Chandy reminisces that A K Antony, who once headed the United Democratic Front (UDF) government in the state, took a major initiative called the Global Investors Meet to attract foreign direct investment. It yielded positive results. AWorld Bank study, that was released during the previous tenure of the UDF (2001-06 ), gave a high ranking to the state in terms of overall investor-friendliness . It is another matter that by 2008, the state's ranking had nose-dived , says Chandy.

During his previous stint as CM from 2004-06 , it was Chandy and the then industries and IT minister P K Kunhalikutty who jointly spearheaded the initiative to allow the Dubai-based Tecom to invest in a 8.8-million sq ft technology park in the state. However, the project, called Smart City, sparked off a controversy and remained a non-starter for the last six years. This time, after assuming office as chief minister, one of the first things Chandy did was put the project back on track. But given the high density of population in the state, isn'tland acquisition for large projects going to be a major issue?

Chandy concedes that finding suitable and adequate land will be a challenge in the state. He, is however, quick to add that this will be overcome through liberal compensation packages. Compensation at market rate will be given before the commencement of the project, he says. "We will overcome these challenges," he says, adding that people will cooperate if the compensation for their loss is in liberal terms. However, to accelerate the overall economic development of the state, the government also needs to focus on some of the disturbing trends in the state's agriculture sector - like the steep fall in both the area under food crops and the consequent drop in output of these crops. Is the high wage rates in the state responsible for this state of affairs?

According to Chandy, more than the high wage rate, it is the serious shortage of labour that has impacted the sector. While maintaining that there are no easy solutions to all these issues, Chandy says the government would soon come out with a policy statement on agriculture. Soon after assuming charge, the chief minister unveiled a 100-day programme for his government . All departments were asked to list out their projects and programmes to be addressed during this period . The different issues confronting the state were taken up one by one.


A proper rehabilitation package for the people at Moolampally, evicted from their homes to provide rail and road connectivity to the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Project at Kochi, was finalised in the first few weeks. Chandy's government managed to settle a three-year old issue in two months. In an attempt to bring in an element of urgency while trying to solve the problems faced by the people, the government will come up with a one-year programme at the end of its 100-day programme , Chandy says. But can a coalition government , functioning on the strength of a wafer-thin majority , be able to achieve all this?

Chandy is confident that it can. He said that the government will follow a policy of consensus on major issues . On sensitive issues, the government will try to work out solutions after taking all the major political parties into confidence, he says. While Chandy hopes to win over the Opposition through such a policy, his own coalition partners have been giving him problems of late.

Several decisions that the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the Kerala Congress (M) [KC(M)| took have misfired, forcing the government to go on the back foot. The maiden budget of the government, presented by the finance minister K M Mani , was criticised by some of the Congress MLAs themselves . A budget proposal that estate owners can use a small portion of their land for tourism projects had invited severe criticism from the Opposition as well. However, in support of the budget, chief minister Chandy was quick to point put that the proposals in the budget were all in line with the declared policies of the government. "I will not agree to the view that the decisions of the IUML or KC (M) have cast the government in bad light" , he says.

The Economic Times, 1 August, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments-analysis/land-acquisition-challenges-can-be-overcome/articleshow/9438600.cms


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