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By Aseem Shrivastava A recently-concluded 10-day padyatra of 300 villages in four districts around Jaipur highlighted the problems of land acquisition
“Arre, arre chor aaya re, chor aaya re… SEZ laya re, SEZ laya re!” So goes the rallying cry from performers playing alarmed villagers in a street play on SEZs and land acquisition. The corrupt neta, beaming greedily in his starched kurta-pyjama, is seen striking lucrative land deals over the backs of farmers with Uncle Sam’s representative in a bowler hat. He sends firm messages over his mobile to his local cronies to organise land for the company. After some hiccups and noises of protest from the villagers, the deals go through. But the story has just begun, as farmers prepare for land battles with the company and the state… The play was put up in hundreds of villages in Rajasthan over the past few weeks. Organised by several different social action groups from the state, the Jan Adhikar Yatra concluded recently in Jaipur after a 10-day padyatra of 300 villages in four districts (Alwar, Sikar, Tonk and Ajmer) around Jaipur by as many as 400 participants from across Rajasthan. Consider for a moment the possibility that in order for it to set up a ‘Special Financial Zone (SFZ)’ you are asked by the government to vacate your luxury apartment in the city because the land on which the building stands is right next to the financial district. Not only is it valued very highly in the real estate market, it is pointed out to you that it is in the larger “public interest” to allow the SFZ to come up, thereby making it possible for the government to invoke the Land Acquisition Act to take possession of your property. As compensation, you are offered a sum equal not to the replacement value of your property, but to its current market value. In some cases, the compensation offered is even less. You have no voice in the matter, especially since a significant proportion of your neighbours in the building have agreed to the deal. This is the precise nature of the predicament in which hundreds of thousands of rural households find themselves today. Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are planned on their farmlands. The SEZ Act of 2005 is being invoked to acquire land from villagers. Till date, three SEZs -- two near Jaipur and one in Jodhpur -- have become operational in Rajasthan. In addition, five others have received “formal approval” and 10 more (including as many as seven multi-product zones above 1,000 hectares each, five of them in Alwar district alone) await formal approval, having already acquired “in-principle approval”. The largest of these is the Omaxe SEZ planned in Alwar district which proposes to occupy as much as 6,000 hectares of land, a good 1,000 hectares above the legally permissible limit, according to changes announced by the Government of India in April 2007. The padyatra focused its protest on six related issues: acquisition of land for SEZs, forced planting of jatropha for bio-diesel (on as much as 6 million hectares in the state, often on village commons falsely construed as wasteland), removal of restrictions on the sale of land owned by SC/ST groups, better implementation of the NREG (National Rural Employment Guarantee) and RTI (Right to Information) Acts (for employment and information, respectively), and social security for workers in the unorganised sector of the economy. The red thread connecting all these controversial issues is the fact that far-reaching decisions are being made without consulting the affected people or allowing their political participation in any form. If democracy is rule with the consent of the governed, it is evidently being betrayed in states like Rajasthan. Big decisions are being made in a dangerously autocratic manner, with consequences all too easy to foretell. Land acquisition for corporations is being facilitated by the state by amending or breaking existing land laws. At the same time, schemes like the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) (in which Rajasthan leads the states in terms of employment generated) are being poorly implemented: workers are being denied the promised minimum wage of Rs 73 per day. There is opacity in a large number of government decisions. RTI applications are gathering dust in public offices: the 30-day time limit is routinely violated. Red tape is rife. Public information boards are missing from panchayat offices. Corruption has not been brought to an end. And this in a state that birthed the idea of people’s right to information. I walked with the padyatris in Sikar district for a few days. The sun was fierce but spirits were high. There were 75-year-old farmers singing songs mocking the government administration. Puppets were used to attract people to the street play about land acquisition, children leading the pack. The play was hugely popular. We walked 10-12 km every day, covering half-a-dozen villages or more. Supported heavily by remittances from the Gulf, the villages were not poor by Indian standards. Virtually everywhere the villagers themselves fed us lunch and dinner. Even if no SEZs are proposed around Sikar for the time being, everyone has heard of them and is certainly wary of parting with their land. The local economy, according to farmers, local traders and journalists from Sikar I spoke to, has been in a state of stagnation for several years. Small trade has actually shrunk. The chief mode of income in the district is remittances made by young workers working in the Middle East. As many as 75-80% of young men from the area have moved to the Gulf states in search of better prospects. Smartly dressed boys and young men I spoke to were all keen to move out of the area as quickly as possible. Some were willing to follow us to Jaipur and Delhi. Farmers complained of falling groundwater levels and the worsening economics of agriculture over the past decade. Everywhere the universal complaint is the absence of productive employment, calling attention (if any was still needed) to the lacklustre implementation of the NREGS so far. There was a dharna in Jaipur between August 21-26, bringing together six different sets of padyatris. Hundreds of people -- the majority being farmers -- from all over Rajasthan attended. Now that Statue Circle (Jaipur’s Boat Club) has been declared out of bounds for public protests (one more sign of the state’s attempt to subvert democracy), people slept on the modest sidewalk of Collectorate Circle, braving heavy downpours on certain days and nights. Testimonies were heard from farmers from across the state, as also speeches from informed observers and activists on issues pertaining to RTI, employment, agriculture, social security, land acquisition, jatropha plantation, and SEZs. The mood is restless and public anger over the state’s persistent failure to obtain economic justice for the poor is growing. At the same time, people’s awareness of their political rights is also on the rise. As their voices grow in number and in strength, it will be interesting to observe the impact on the upcoming state elections next year. InfoChange News & Features, September 2007
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