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NCAS organized a day long National Consultation on Land Acquisition and Land Redistribution, on August 24, 2011 in Pune, where it was felt that though the Land acquisition and R&R Bill 2011 is an improved document, but it will fail to protect the interests of the displaced communities and societies depended on land. In addition NCAS Chhatisgarh and Odisha also co-organised regional consultations. These consultations brought some concrete suggestions to the fore to be put forward before the UPA government which has now presented a new Bill for regulating the land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement.
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The consultation began with Vasudha Dhagamwar discussing the land acquisition and rehabilitation in the light of changing land use. Pravin Mahajan made his presentation on approaching the issue rationally taking into account facts related to land use and food production. Vijay Pranjape chaired this session.
The second session was about the question of redistribution by Baba Adhav, PV Ragagopal, Pratibha Shinde and Manjula Pradeep. Jarjum Ete chaired the session. In the afternoon session Mihir Desai and Jaya Mehta discussed the real issues arising out of the Draft Land acquisition and R&R Bill.
The speakers proposed many amendments to make to the Bill to make the new Act fairer to the people who get displaced due to land acquisitions and give them a stake in development. (Please fine a note about the speakers and links to their papers below).
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There was a lot of response from the house and from the discussions which ensued, important recommendations to the government on the draft LA & R&R Bill, have been arrived at and duly submitted.
Meanwhile however, many of the provisions in the draft bill that could have taken us towards a non-colonial dispensation have been rolled back in the bill presented before the parliament. The unkindest cut is the decision not to give R&R to those who do not own land but are affected by the acquisition, as one of the important ideas that came out of the consultation was to seek attraction of R&R provisions not on the basis of land acquired but on the basis of population affected. The moot point remains as to how can state collude in coercive transfer of assets especially when it is not ready to demonstrate public good as against private profit as the primary objective of acquisition? We think that that this would be a preposterous position for a government that is seeking wider legitimacy and "growth with a human face".
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A brief note about the main speakers and links to their papers :
Vasudha Dhagamwar , an independent scholar, was the Founder Executive Director of Multiple Action Research Group (MARG), New Delhi. Dr Dhagamwar has been writing extensively on development induced displacement for nearly thirty years. She is now the President of NCAS. (Paper 1: Placing Changes in Land Use: Contextualizing Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LA and R&R). Paper 2: Land acquisition- taking issues beyond emotions Paper 3: New Vision for Land Reforms Paper 4: Acquisition of ST Land: The Adivsi Lens
Paper 5: Scenario of Land reforms in Gujarat Paper 6: Measuring new bill on People Centredness
Paper 6: Measuring new bill on People Centredness
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