ദളിതൻ സമരസപ്പെടുമ്പോൾ

ദളിതൻ  സമരസപ്പെടുമ്പോൾ അധികാരം ലഭിക്കുമോ

 നെറ്റിയില്‍ ധാര്‍മ്മികത കൊണ്ട് സിന്ദൂരം ചാര്‍ത്തിയ, കുശലത  കൊണ്ട്   പൊതുജനത്തെ കൈകളിൽ  എടുക്കുന്ന രാഷ്ട്രീയക്കാരൻ  എന്നും ദളിതനെയും ആദിവാസികളെയും   അധികാരത്തിൽ  നിന്നും അകറ്റി  നിറുത്തിയതേയുള്ളൂ, അതുകൊണ്ടു തന്നെ ഭരണം എത്ര മാറിയാലും  അവനു കൃഷി ചെയ്യാൻ ഭൂമിയോ  താമസിക്കാൻ വീടോ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നില്ല.  എന്നാൽ കഴിഞ്ഞ ഒരു പത്തു വർഷങ്ങൾകിടയിൽ  അവർ  നമ്മുടെ ഭരണകൂടവുമായി  ഏറ്റുമുട്ടലിൽ ആയിരുന്നു. മുത്തങ്ങയിൽ നിന്നും ചെങ്ങറയിൽനിന്നും അവർ  ഏറ്റുമുട്ടി ഏറ്റവും ഒടുവിൽ ഭരണകൂടത്തിന്റെ വാഗ്ദാനങ്ങൾ നേടിയെടുക്കാൻ  നില്പുസമരത്തിലും  അവർ എത്തി.

 ഭരിക്കുന്ന  മുന്നണികൾ  മാറി വാഗ്ദാനങ്ങൾ ജലരേഖ മാത്രമായ്. മതികെട്ടാനിലും, വാഗമൺ  തുടങ്ങി ഇടുക്കിയിലെ  മറ്റു സ്ടലങ്ങളിൽ  കൈയേറ്റക്കാർ ഭരണത്തിലെ  സ്വാധീനത്താൽ ഭൂമി പതിച്ചെടുത്തു. കൈയേറ്റക്കാർ നിയമത്തെ  വെല്ലുവിളിച്ചു  നിയമനിർമ്മാണ സഭകളിൽ കയറികൂടി ഭൂമിയുടെ അവകാശികൾ  ഒരുതുണ്ട് ഭൂമിക്ക് വേണ്ടി ഇന്നും  സര്കാരുകൾ മാറിവരാൻ മാത്രം  വോട്ടു ചെയാനുള്ള  പാവകൾ മാത്രം ആയി പരിണമിച്ചു.
ഇതിൽ നിന്നും ഒരു മാറ്റമായിരിക്കാം  ജാനുവിന്റെ പ്രവേശനത്തോടെ മാറുന്നത്. ‘പുറന്തള്ളപ്പെട്ട വിഭാഗത്തിന്റെ ഒരു നേതാവാണ് ജാനുവും’ എന്ന് പറയുന്നതിലൂടെ പ്രത്യയശാസ്ത്ര കൌശലം കൊണ്ടു ഇത് വരെ ചെയ്ത തെറ്റുകളെ മറയ്ക്കാൻ ശ്രമിക്കുന്ന രാഷ്ട്രീയ  കക്ഷികൾ  തങ്ങളുടെ പ്രവർത്തനത്തിലൂടെ അധകൃതരെ  സാമൂഹ്യ മുഖ്യധാരയിലെതികുന്നതിനു പകരം കൈയേറ്റക്കാരെ സഹായിക്കൽ  നടത്താൻ മഠിയില്ലത്തവരും ആയിരുന്ന.

ഇവിടെ ദളിതനുൾപെടെയുള്ള  ജനവിഭാഗങ്ങൾ അധികാരത്തിലെത്താനുള്ള  വഴികൾ  തേടുകയാണ് , ഒരു പക്ഷെ  ശ്രി  അംബേദ്‌കരുടെ  സ്വപ്നം സാക്ഷതകരിക്കപെടുന്നതയിരിക്കാം, ഉത്തർപ്രദേശിൽ മായാവതി  മുഖ്യമന്ത്രി ആയതു BJP യുടെ മുന്നണി സംവിധാനതിലൂടെയനെന്നത് ചരിത്രമാണ്‌

Read more at: http://www.mathrubhumi.com/features/politics/c-k-janu-malayalam-news-1.1021421

‘പുറന്തള്ളപ്പെട്ട വിഭാഗത്തിന്റെ ഒരു നേതാവാണ് ജാനുവും’ ......

Read more at: http://www.mathrubhumi.com/features/politics/c-k-janu-malayalam-news-1.1021421

Why Land ordinance?

• 1894’s land act was bogus and exploitive. So Congress government enacted new law in 2013, with provisions for social impact assessment, fair compensation, dispute settlement and other fancy things.
• LARR-2013 Act became effective from 1st January 2014.
• But, this LARR Act-2013 established an extremely complex and impractical land acquisition process.
• Holdouts: Jholachhap NGOs would instigate 20-25% of the affected families to stage holdout- promising them it’ll fetch them even higher prices. and Given the 70-80% consent requirement, the project will never kickoff.
• Litigation: because local (and therefore corruption) Patwari and Tehsildars never maintain proper land records of who owns how much land.
• This raised the land prices, red tapism and thus the overall project cost.
• Neither the farmer could sell its land and move to urban areas, no the entrepreneur could buy the land and move towards rural areas.
• Combined with Environment-activism and policy paralysis of UPA regime, the end result was infrastructure bottleneck, high inflation and fall in GDP.
• As such those stringent LARR provisions did not apply to 13 central laws e.g. if land was acquired under Railways Act or Atomic Energy Act, then Social-impact assessment, market-rate compensation etc. were not applicable.
• But this “Exemption” was given only for a year i.e. upto 1st January 2015. By the time, Government needed to amend those 13 acts so that LARR-like high compensation rates can be given to farmers in those projects also. But it was no possible to amend 13 central laws  due these reasons Frequent Disruptions in Winter session (December 2014), Modi doesn’t enjoy majority in Rajya Sabha. some of the union ministries hadnot even prepared the bills. 

Therefore, Government decided to use ordinance route under Article 123 of the Constitution.

Comparison of 

LARR-Act 2013	Land Ordinance 2014
Mandatory 70% consent for PPP projects. Mandatory 80% consent for private projects. Mandatory Social impact assessment (SIA) for every projects.	Those “mandatory” things are no longer required for 5 types of projects: National security and Defense Production Rural infrastructure, Rural electrification Infrastructure and Social infrastructure Industrial corridors Housing for Poors.
SIA mandatory for every type of project.	SIA not needed for Those five categories listed above PPP projects, IF Government owns the land.
other public need like hospitals, schools	Building private hospitals and private educational institutes will also count as “public purpose”. Means, they too can acquire land if 80% affected families agreed.
Compensation: 4 times the market rate in rural area. 2 times in urban area.	no change
Stringent provisions for relief and rehabilitation (R&R).	no change in these things
Private “companies” can acquire land for public purpose.	Private “entities” can acquire. Meaning private companies, NGOs, trusts, foundations, charity bodies, proprietors etc. too can acquire land for “public purpose”
If any mischief played on Government’s part then head of the department will be responsible	Head of the department can’t be prosecuted without prior sanction of government (under CrPC Section 197). This “immunity” is given to ensure bureaucrats don’t sit on the files, fearing media-trials and judicial activism.

Land ordinance: Criticism

1. Given the “Immunity” against prosecution, Bureaucrats will play mischief in land acquisition, to help Raabert Vaadra types unabated.
2. Those “five exempted categories” are very broad- particularly “infrastructure and social-infrastructure”. So, Pretty much all projects can be done without social impact assessment or taking consent of 70-80% of affected families. Entire LARR-2013 is made invalid through clever-wordplay.
3. Social impact assessment (SIA) not required in five types of projects. So, local laborers, artisans, small traders will either get zero or very small relief package, even if their livelihood is lost because of industrial/infrastructure project.
4. Private colleges and hospitals too can acquire land. BUT if they continue to charge hefty-fees then no real ‘public-purpose’ is served. Mushrooming of self-financed bogus-quality Engineering, Pharmacy and MCA colleges doesn’t help reaping India’s demographic dividend.
5. Ordinance doesn’t specifically say that such private hospitals and school/colleges are exempt from “Social impact assessment” (SIA). But they too can dodge SIA-bullet by claiming it’s a “social-infrastructure” project.
6. In parliamentary democracy, Ordinance should be used only for dire emergency. Modi could have waited till budget session, and get proper approval from parliament. [Counter-argument: there was deadline of 1/1/2015].

Land Acquisition, Rehab, Resettlement Act (LARR) 2013

1.  Land acquisition refers to the process by which government forcibly acquires private property for public purpose. In India Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (1894 Act) governs all such acquisitions. Additionally,there are 16 Acts with provisions foracquisition of land in specific sectors such as railways, special economic zones, national highways , etc. The 1894 Act does not provide for rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) for those affected by land acquisition. Currently, the R&R process is governed by the National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007.

why was this law enacted?

1. Land Acquisition means government/private company purchasing private land for “public purpose“.
2. But, under the British-era Land acquisition act of 1894, the term “public purpose” was ambiguous and open to executive-discretion. So, poor peoples’ land was acquired at throwaway prices in pretext of development projects.
3. Sometimes such projects never started, and the same cheap land was resold at higher price to real estate developers, without building anything for “public purpose”.
4. With this tactic politicians, their sons-in-law and bureaucrats made billions out of thin air. LARR act-2013 tried to fix this problem.

Features  of Land Acquisition, Rehab, Resettlement Act (LARR) 2013

The Bill specifies provisions for land acquisition as well as R&R Some of the major changes from the current provisions are related to folowing dimentions of land Acquisition.

1. The process of land acquisition 
2. Rights of the people displaced by the acquisition
3.  method of calculating compensation
4. Requirement of R&R for all acquisitions.

and this act made all acquisitions require rehabilitation and resettlement to be provided to the people affected by the acquisition.

The process for land acquisition

• Involves a Social Impact Assessment survey
• Preliminary notification stating the intent for acquisition
•  a declaration of acquisition, 
• compensation to be given by a certain time.  

    Compensation for the owners  -  four times the market value in case of rural areas and twice in case of urban areas.
    acquisition for private companies or public private partnerships -  consent of 80 per cent of the affected peoplerequired. But in the case of PSUs no such consent is required.

Purchase of large pieces of land by private companies will require provision of rehabilitation and resettlement.

The provisions of this Bill shall not apply to acquisitions under 16 existing legislations including the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005, the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, the Railways Act, 1989, etc.

Since every acquisition need a Social Impact Assesment and requirement consent from  minimun threshold may delay the implementation of any projects government.

Other Issues 

The calculation of market values is based on the transactions which are reported recently.
This value is doubled in rural areas to arrive at the compensation amount and this method may not lead to an accurate adjustment for the possible underreporting of prices in land transactions.

The government can temporarily acquire land for a maximum period of three years.  There is no provision for rehabilitation and resettlement in such cases.

Comparision between 1894 act and LARR act 2013

Colonial Act 1894	LARR Act 2013
The term “public purpose” was ambiguous and open to Government’s discretion	Clearly defines various types of “public purpose” projects for which, Government can acquire private land
They were given no voice in decision making.	For private project, 80% affected families must agree. For PPP project, 70% affected families must agree.Only then land can be acquired.
They were given no voice in decision making.	Under Social impact assessment (SIA) even need to obtain consent of the affected artisans, laborers, share-croppers, tenant farmers, fishermen, small traders, Desi-liquor den owners etc. whose (sustainable) livelihood will be affected because of the given project.
compensation - Government was free to decide how much money to pay while acquiring private land.	"Compensation proportion to market rates. 4 times the market rate in rural area. 2 times in urban area.Affected artisans, small traders, fishermen etc. will be given one-time payment, even if they don’t own any land."
fertile land - no restriction on land	"To ensure food security: Fertile, irrigated, multi-cropped farmland can be acquired only in last resort. If such fertile land is acquired, then Government will have to develop equal size of wasteland for agriculture purpose."
acqusition of land for private company - no guidence	"if Government acquires the lands for private company- the said private company will be responsible for relief and rehabilitation of the affected people. Additional rehab.package for SC/ST owners. Example- fishing rights over dam, 25% extra money if settled outside their native district and so on."
no despute mechanism	State Governments have to setup dispute settlement authorities. Chairman must be a district judge or lawyer for 7 years.
no accountability	Head of the department will be made responsible, for any offense or mischief played from Government’s side. (although this made the officers very cautious given the media-trials. They’d sit on the files instead of taking any action).
If project did not start, then acquired land was secretly sold/leased to private players at sky-high prices.	If project doesn’t start in 5 years, land has to be returned to the original owner.

Jinnah, Jaswant and real isues faced by india

For today the great day for the people believe in Democracy the voting for President in Afghan. yes it makes me happy. Yes i knew that more than thousand American forces are their. And the country is facing problem from tali-ban . i hope eight year's after tali ban the Afghan people got the chance to elect their president. Now come to india the the debate on Jinnah and the reasons for partition are discussed here after 63 years. I think we have country having great civilization and we are matured At least our political party's should have matured for 63 years. the book is burnt by congress leader in UP and BJP expelled Jaswant from their party primary membership. it may be bjp's internal matter and Ideological deviation and all, but i think the citzen of india and the students learning History have the right to know the actual thing behind the partition. So i think in all matters the books should be discussed and lets hold the debate on the book and find the truth. or let the people who are interested in history should learn the origin of the two country theory and the facts behind it. so what ever the reason the book should not be banned. in our school time we learned congress party brought independence[!] . as my concern the people of india after 63 year of independence they are mature and we people of india have the right to accept it or not. it may be the right time for bjp to prove that as party they stick on the ideology and their is no problem in the party leader ship after the great loss in the parliament election. i thought it is the right time to think about the future program for it, and the reformation should start from the low level itself. i conclude by saying instead focusing on these sensational issues they should think about the people of india. the common people have to think about the prise rise and jobless. I think now in time of recesion as a responsive opposition they should come uo with a refined ecconomic policies. people of india are suffer due to prise rise and job less if the party admits it they should come up with solutions, other wise they should again round to family planing figure in this country, which they have reached in the late eighties. From the left i hear a good demand that all international treaties should be ratified by the parliament. i think this should welcomed by all parties in this country. and we should extend the capasity of parliament members. i think even bjp also agree with this. and some of congress leaders also support this demands the i thought their should be no problem in making an amenment to our constitution.