Land Acquisition

Introduction:

With coming to fore as the fastest growing economy in the world, even surpassing China, India has made a strong come back after a deep lull marred by what corporates, economists and bureaucrats termed as the ‘policy paralysis’. The various initiatives by the NDA government have been effective in garnering confidence among the existing as well as potential global investors. This renewed enthusiasm is attracting players in fields which were originally dominated by the government, the recent being the highly successful auction of coal blocks. As a layman, what one misses to see in these auctions is that those blocks with better connectivity and infrastructure facilities have attracted substantially higher bids as compared to others. Not only just coal blocks, but any investment opportunity attracts a higher premium if it is supported with better infrastructure. And our previous government, and to some extent the present one as well, have failed to gain from this opportunity. In an attempt to push this sector, the ruling party came with certain reforms in the form of early environmental clearances and moderating the Land Acquisition Bill passed during the past regime. But as expected in the political conundrum, the bill was rebuked in the Upper House of the Parliament, where opposition is in majority. What our political parties don’t realize is that any such action is against their ‘political agenda’ of nation building. The economic liberalization of 1991 gave the necessary fillip to Indian economy and laid the foundation of what can be called as the Industrial Revolution in India. This led to an increased participation from the private sector and foray of many international players in setting up their operations in the country, which further lead to high urbanization and resource utilization. This led to an exponential increase in the usage of land as a resource and shall still continue to remain so for a developing economy like India. As NC Saxena...