The Supreme Court on Monday told the government to dump the archaic Land Acquisition Act to prevent Nandigram-like violent protests in every state, sounding the warning that it would step in to safeguard public interest if the authorities failed to do the needful. "The perspective has to change. The public purpose clause in the 1894 Act must go. If the government does not do it, then this court has to act....
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The land debate by BG Verghese
Development has a multiplier effect in terms of employm-ent, secondary activity and revenue to state, while delay entails loss for everybody. Tolstoy’s famous question, “How much land does a man require?” was answered when the Count who had ruthlessly exploited his serfs was buried in a grave measuring 7x4x4 feet. And that, Tolstoy concluded, was all the land a man requires. Is corporate and infrastructural greed in India today destroying the small,...
More »India land disputes pit farmers against middle class by Shilpa Kannan
In the first of a series of reports on land rights, we look at the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where there have been violent clashes between local villagers and police in a dispute over land. It's a hot summer day and the air is thick with smoke from the diesel-powered trucks carrying bricks, cement and sand. There is a long line of vehicles along the road as the trucks jostle...
More »SC puts public purpose above sacrifice, clears Taj Expressway
The Supreme Court today upheld the Uttar Pradesh government’s land acquisition for the Taj Expressway linking Delhi with Agra, dismissing farmers’ contention that the land had been acquired for a “company” and not for a “public purpose”. The top court agreed with Allahabad High Court’s view that even if a private company — Jaypee Infratech Ltd — had paid all land acquisition costs, the acquisition would be considered for a public...
More »BJP cleared expressway, now it is opposing project
BJP may have stalled proceedings in both Houses of parliament on Monday over the firing in Aligarh in which four people were killed. But the lesser talked-about fact of the matter is that the original notification for the Taj Expressway was issued in April 2001 when BJP’s Rajnath Singh was the Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister. The expressway, which Mayawati re-christened as Yamuna Expressway, is at the crux of the ongoing clash...
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