Business
Economics & Services Team (BEST)
Land Acquisition Bill-Will the Government
Walk the Talk?
At an
Indo-US Infrastructure Summit held today, the Union Minister for Road Transport,
Highways & Shipping waved a green twig to the US investors to focus on
India, which according to him, will be a
win-win situation. Interestingly, the minister also hit the nail on the grey areas that might ward
off the foreign investors. Important among
them is the oft repeated restrictive provisions of the recently amended land acquisition
bill, which has created a lot of consternation among various segments of the
society, particularly industry.
The minister
assured the US delegation attending the Summit that the government is seized up
with the matter and a positive decision will be taken very soon. Experts feel
that the minister’s assurance is an oversimplification of the complex process
that is awaiting when the government gets into brass tacks for amending the law.
Dissenting voices are aired freely even by certain segments of the ruling
alliance against tinkering with the law. The reason is simple. Rightly or
wrongly, the legislation has empowered certain sections of the stakeholders particularly
the farmers whose lands were acquired for industrial purposes. They are backed
by some of the very powerful NGOs and in
certain pockets by the banned naxal groups, who are known for their militant stand
against liberalization policies.
Against this
backdrop, the minister and the entire council of ministers should tread a careful
line. The last regime-UPA-had amended the law primarily on the
assumption that it could bring them more votes. That backfired since the sins
they had committed could not offset the sins against them. Interestingly, some
of the past sins committed by the union government and some of the state
governments cannot be wished away. They had acquired land on the promise that industrial
clusters would be set up. What that had
happened was setting up of big satellite towns developed by big builders in
connivance with the authorities. The farmers felt cheated.
The first
thing that the government should do is to evolve a model acquisition guideline
that can clearly protect the interests of the persons whose land is acquired
and that protection should be in continuum and not a one-time payment.
The Minister
also spelt out many schemes that the US would be interested in taking
cognizance of while exercising their investment plans. One is roads, where the
government is planning to build 30 kms a day, a herculean task, if achieved,
will make India’s physical distribution the best in the world. The minister is
willing to consider each project as a stand - alone one and will evolve
separate strategies for making them attractive and give yield to the investors
commensurate with their investment.
In ports and
inland water sector, the minister wants the US investment in building hovercrafts,
catamarans, building of jetties. The government is chalking out ambitious plans
to innovative facilities for tapping the growth potentials in the country.
The minister’s
assurance that a model documentation for infrastructure projects will be
evolved soon is a good augury since the present guidelines are inadequate,
archaic and are heavily lauded against the investor.
What is
important is the implementation and not rolling out the wish list. The minister
knows it better than anyone else since he has to his credit the implementation of
many important infrastructure projects while he was the PWD minister of the
Maharashtra Government. He must be knowing what he talks.
