Bhubaneswar: The passage of a controversial land acquisition Bill in late September by the Odisha assembly amidst a boycott by the opposition has evoked sharp reactions from major political parties and rights activists.
The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Odisha Amendment) Bill (RFCTLAR&R), 2023, passed on September 27, empowers the government to exempt ‘strategic and development projects’ from social impact assessment (SIA) and special provisions to ensure food security – which were hitherto considered mandatory.
Given the brute majority (114 out of 147 seats) that the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) enjoys in the legislature, the Bill was passed without a hitch. But the opposition parties staged a walkout to register their protest. Making a statement, revenue and disaster management minister Sudam Marndi said that mandatory provisions in the RFCTLAR&R Bill like SIA and special provisions for food security were delaying the acquisition of land. The minister referred to the state government’s Make-In-Odisha conclaves aimed at attracting private investments in mega projects across sectors. Fast-tracking these projects depends a lot on the state government’s ability to provide trouble-free land to the project proponents.
The new Bill will enable the state government to issue notifications exempting projects vital to national security or defence and infrastructure development from SIA and food security provisions. Projects like affordable housing, industrial corridors set up by the state government, infrastructure projects, including highways and railways, and industrial projects involving displacement of 100 families or less or acquisition of private land of 500 acres or less will be exempted from conducting mandatory SIA.
According to the Bill, the RFCTLAR&R Act, 2013, a central law which makes SIA mandatory, “causes a delay in acquisition of land.”
Rights activist and leader of Lok Shakti Abhiyan, Prafulla Samantara lambasted the state government for bringing amending the Central law to facilitate the acquisition of land for various projects. “The new Bill goes against the spirit of the Central law. It is anti-democratic and anti-people. It is now more than obvious that the government is on the side of the corporates without bothering about the plight of common people, especially the tiller of land,” said Samatara, who is currently engaged in a fight for the people’s right to land that a corporate house is trying to mine for bauxite in the Sijimali area of Rayagada district. He said that for land acquisition, not only the consent of the tiller of the land should be taken but also the opinion of the gram sabha.
Prafulla Samantara. Photo: CC BY-SA 2.0/Wikimedia Commons
Lawyer-cum-activist Siddhartha Nayak, who was one of the leading lights of the movement against mining in the Niyamgiri hills, was also critical of the government. “This is the most undemocratic step taken by the government for the acquisition of land. Its prime victims will be poor tribals who are fighting for their land rights in different parts of the state. We need to launch a state-wide movement to oppose this,” said Nayak. He said the Bill is a sign of desperation on the part of the government, which has failed to acquire land peacefully for certain mega projects in the past.
In 2013, ArcelorMittal pulled out of Odisha after scrapping its $12 billion (Rs 50,000 crore) steel plant project because of problems in acquiring land. This was a blow to the state government’s attempts to showcase investments in major projects as an achievement on the industrialisation front.
In 2017, the state government suffered another major blow when POSCO, the world’s fourth-largest steelmaker, withdrew from its 12-million-tonne-capacity steel project in Jagatsinghpur district. This was at that time considered to be the biggest foreign direct investment (FDI) in the steel sector in the country. However, the South Korean company had to retract because land acquisition for the project led to widespread violence at the project site. POSCO’s withdrawal also affected the ruling BJD politically.
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“It is such cases which create problems for the state government. The government wants to avoid such hurdles at any cost,” said Nayak.
Lingraj Azad, another tall leader of the Niyamgiri movement, described the government’s latest move as disgraceful. “It is like looting someone’s land without even seeking their opinion. There is no respect for public opinion now. There can be no development at the cost of people because the very purpose of development is to better the lives of people,” said Azad.
Lawyer-cum-activist Siddhartha Nayak felt that by passing such laws, the government was actually inviting trouble for itself as there is bound to be resistance. “They have seen this in Niyamgiri, where they had once backed attempts at bauxite mining by a major corporate house which is now eyeing bauxite reserves in Sijimali. The government and the corporate house thought that the tribal people resisting mining in the Niyamgiri hills would back out. They also tried to divide them using various means. But ultimately the people won and Niyamgiri became a symbol of the fight for people’s right over their land and the natural resources bestowed upon them by God. This Bill will similarly provoke common people to fight attempts by big corporate houses to take away their land with the support of the government,” said Nayak.
Senior Congress leader and former MLA Lalatendu Mohapatra described the passage of the Bill despite a boycott by the opposition parties as “unfortunate” and a sign of growing intolerance on the part of powers that be.
Meanwhile, state BJP general secretary Bhrigu Buxipatra said that the government may have to pay a heavy price for going against the will of the people and forcing its brand of development on them. “Development has to be harmonious and in tune with the wishes of the people. If it does not respect their wishes it is bound to spawn strife,” said Buxipatra.
However, BJD leader Narayan Pradhan asserted that the government had taken the right step keeping because it would “pave the way for rapid industrialisation”.
Ashutosh Mishra is an Odisha-based journalist.
