The Supreme Court has cancelled Greater Noida projects, objecting to these as a demonstration of arbitrary state power. It reprimanded the Uttar Pradesh government for invoking the urgency clause just because it could, overriding the objections of farmers who owned the land rather than persuading them with an array of incentives. It also objected to the Greater Noida state authorities for allotting the land to commercial developers before land-use changes had been sanctioned.
However, despite the court's romantic notions about the farmers' deep and sustaining attachment to the soil, the trouble in Noida and all too many other places stems from friction over compensation and stakes. Given the pressure on land and the press of commercial interests, few farmers object to selling, so long as they do not feel exploited and entirely left out of the phenomenal gains from changing land-use, leaving them no choice but protest. This situation is played out across states, where different administrations have settled on various imperfect compromises in the absence of an updated land acquisition law. Haryana has an annuity model for farmers, UP has further enhanced compensations plans. However, we need a national land acquisition policy that takes these expectations into account instead of the state simply steamrollering their aspirations.
But we cannot move beyond the current default without political consensus. The land acquisition legislation, we know, had been stalled for an unconscionably long time because of the Trinamool Congress's refusal to budge on issues that it perceived as central to its self-image. It doesn't help that in many states opposition parties often play on these resentments for their own electoral ends, rather than seeking a comprehensive solution.
The modified land bill is set to enter Parliament this session. All political parties, with any stakes in the states, are invested in bringing coherence to land acquisition policy. They must realise that the longer they wait to get the new Land Acquisition Act passed, the more likely they are to find themselves mired in these conflicts.
