vic wrote:Low payment to farmers is not a political directive, it just stupid bureaucratic inertia and petty fogging. The requirement of 4 times the market price for rural areas will now bring land acquisition price "near to" real market price. I recently personally did a case, in which Supreme Court directed payment of market price and the bureaucracy calculated the market price at 5 lakhs for that land while the real market price was around Rs. 50 crores. The land owner offered to pay the Govt Rs 5 crores to release the land which was his own, which was refused. No wonder the case went back to Courts.
In Gurgaon farmers are paid Rs 80 lakhs per acre for super prime land, and the same land after Group housing license becomes worth Rs 30 crores per acre. Why should only builders, politicians, bureaucracy pocket the difference? Let the farmers also share some benefits for the land which his family is holding for tens of Generations. Give him say, 10% of benefit like say Rs. 3 crores or so per acre.
The problem in land acquisition unlike other agitations is simply about market value genuine compense. I have seen dozens of such cases and the only issue is "genuine compensation" which is fraction of the cost of the project.
In Greater Noida, I am led to believe that Judges personally know how much bribe Dalit Auntie was taking per acre, so they struck down the acquisition. If FAR is improved from 3 to 5 then again farmers can be given around Rs 2 crores per acre instead of Rs 40 lakhs now. The good thing would be that politicians, bureaucracy can even keep on taking their bribes without raping the farmers and end consumers alike.
The dispute in land acquisition is rape of farmer and end customer for benefit of politicians and bureaucracy. Therefore, we should learn to look at other side of the coin.
It is not that simple. When land is bought it has nothing, no infrastructure to support a building, residential or commercial or institutional or industrial. Water lines, Sewage pipes, Storm Water drains, Electricity wires, telecommunication cables have to be laid. Further roads have to be paved and laid. All of this takes money. If we increase the land acquisition costs then what happens is that consequently the end price of the house, building, shops, etc goes up.
Moreover in many cities like Gurgaon, if a builder is building say 100 Flats he has to build a similar percentage of flats for EWS families. Also most of the people in Gurgaon who give their land get flats and penthouses in the flats being constructed. This gives them an incentive to get the building completed and enjoy their benefits. So increasing the land prices is one thing. It looks noble. But it is not the solution. What is needed is that people who have their lands taken away ought to be trained or upskilled. These people have to be given a revenue stream which is part of the structure coming on their land.
Giving high prices for the land may lead to wastage. People getting 10-50 cores will automatically go and buy 2-3 scorpios or go on a spending binge. After a few years the money is gone and people are without money, without means to earn money and without a piece of land. And then they start to look at the houses or building on their erstwhile land and get envious. You will find a lot of people complaining that they got nothing, once the initial money given to them has been spent. Some of them turn to crime and some to Maoist or other dangerous organizations.
Giving a high price for the land does not give people a stake in the progress. Rather it is a way to avoid hard and painfull choices. A means of getting out of their obligations without taking the difficult path.
