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Truth of 70:30 acquisition plan: Tribal farmers get Rs 2L, rich Rs 17L by Supriya Sharma

When all failed, a police lathicharge did the trick. Farmers of Akaltara village were protesting against land acquisition for a month, but only after the police beat them up and arrested 78 men on a cold January evening, that things heated up. Opposition leaders rushed to the site and the government was forced to react.

From Rs 8 lakh, compensation rates were hiked to Rs 17 lakh per acre. The protesters went home. The company, KSK Energy Ventures, went back to building a 3,600 MW power plant. But in the neighbouring village of Rogda, Sadhram Gond, an old farmer counted the last rupees left in his bank account.

KSK Ventures, or Wardha Power, as it was named earlier, had bought Sadhram's land in 2009. The farmer was paid just Rs 64,125 for 0.45 acre land, or Rs 1.55 lakh per acre, a fraction of Rs 17 lakh per acre, the final rate fixed by the government.

It was among the first land deals struck by the company, at dirt cheap rates, with poor illiterate tribal farmers. Sadhram recalls a company official, Suresh Mohan, began showing up at the doorstep of his mud-walled home in 2008, employing a combination of carrot and stick tactic. "He would say the government has marked your land for the project, you have no choice but to sell. Other times, he would fold his hands and say baba, whether it is 0.5 acres or 5 acres, for every parchi (sale deed), one person will be given a job." His young son, Gajpal, had finished his B Com and computers, a rare qualification for a poor tribal farmer's son. Sadhram agreed to sell his land, but asked the price to be spelt out. Mohan told him it would be decided by the collector.

Under Chhattisgarh's law, tribal land can't be sold to a non tribal without the collector's nod. The provision is meant to safeguard vulnerable tribals from becoming landless. Sadhram said he was taken to the collector's office. He sat outside, while the company official went into the office. He came out and said, "It is done, you sign here, the collector will take care of the rate." Sadhram never got to meet the collector, nor did 56 other tribal farmers of Rogda, whose land transfer was approved by the additional collector, citing reasons, including the land is being sold to meet domestic expenses; that it is rocky land; and it falls in the proposed site.

As per revenue receipts, Sadhram had been paying tax for irrigated double crop land, and not barren land as the additional collector had noted. A similar story played out with Ramshankar Singh, a disabled farmer, who was driven to the district headquarters, and taken to the house of lawyer Bainswar. "He asked me to sign on a document. He said it was an application seeking the collector's approval for sale of land," said Ramshankar. He signed on the dotted line, only to be handed over a cheque of Rs 4.59 lakh and told he had signed away his 2.05 acre at a rate of Rs 2.3 lakh per acre.

"I was furious. I said I would complain. The lawyer said he would get me implicated in a false case of forcibly entering his house," said Ramshankar. Any sale of land can be formalised only in the government's registry office. "That's why we did not realise we were signing the sale deed at the lawyer's house," says Gyan Singh, an old farmer, on the verge of tears.

In his letter, the additional collector says it has been ensured "the tribal seller has not been misled or cheated". But it isn't just tribal farmers who got a raw deal. In the application for green clearance, the company stated it needed 2,050 acres land, which it planned to acquire through direct negotiation with farmers.

Accordingly, it began purchasing land for Rs 1.55 lakh per acre in 2009, gradually increasing the rate to Rs 7 lakh. By mid 2010, when it came to influential families, the company settled for Rs 23 lakh per acre. When the company had acquired 1,688 of 2,050 acres, it wrote to the government, asking it to acquire the remaining land under the Land Acquisition Act, 1864 which empowers governments to take away land for public purpose. (The pattern is similar to the 70:30 formula being proposed in the new land acquisition bill, where if a firm has bought 70% land, the government acquires the remaining 30%).

For farmers, this was bad news. Government acquisition meant the rate dropped from Rs 23 lakh to just Rs 6-10 lakh per acre, as fixed under Chhattisgarh Rehabilitation Policy of 2010.

The farmers protested. After the dramatic events of January, the government was compelled to broker an agreement, whereby the company agreed to raise the rate to Rs 17 lakh per acre. But this benefitted just 50-60 farmers who had not sold their land yet. One of them was Ashok Burman, an educated farmer. He said, "Our relatives live in Korba where Lanco company has bought land. They warned us. They said do not sell to the company directly, wait till the government acquires land."

At a time when India debates a new land acquisition policy, this is an important difference to note, says Sudiep Srivastava, lawyer and activist. "When companies buy land directly, they begin with the poor and vulnerable, who get the worst deal, while those who are better off manage to hold out for favourable terms." Today, Ramshankar has just Rs 2,000 left in his account, Gyan Singh is left with Rs 1,500, and Sadhram Rs 1,300.

The January protest of tribal farmers helped mount pressure on the company to abide by its job promise. On April 23, Sadhram's son Gajpal got an offer letter from the company.

The job was that of a computer operator in Aghora constructions, one of the many companies to which KSK had outsourced work.

"Once the construction phase is over, the company will leave and I will lose the job," said Gajpal.