An appeal to PM, LARR Ordinance, 2014 by Farmers of Gujarat

The long struggle for the land acquisition related bill resulted in the formulation of the Act, which was accepted and passed in the parliament. With the urgency to appease the corporate, the Government of India acted to haste to modify the provision through an ordinance cutting the fundamental rights of the farmers in their own land. Following is an appeal made by the farmers in Gujarat. to the Hon. PM.

23rd February 2015
To,
The Prime Minister,
Government of India,
New Delhi
Re.: To not give effect to the Ordinance amending the Right to Fair
Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and
Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013
Dear Sir,

Ever since independence, the poor, the ad ivasis, the rural residents have always,

without exception, been called upon to sacrifice ‘for the development of the

country’. We do not recall a single instance when the urban, educated and well-off

sections of society were ever called upon to make such sacrifices. Decisions about

‘development’ (its definition, parameters, d irection, strategy) have always been

made by the urban upper classes and its victims have always been the rural poor

classes.

The new LARR Act, 2013 was thus a result of much reflection and wide-ranging

d iscussions, and passed by parliament by way of atonement for past sins. Your party

was very much in agreement with the tone and tenor of the Act. Your party’s role

during the parliamentary debate on the Bill and your government’s pronouncements

on the Act after forming the new government are quite contrary. Were the pre election

pronouncements on the Act a strategic act to garner the majority votes of

the rural poor? But if not, and you and your government are truly determined to

work for the rural, farmers, Adivasis, then:

Do not act on the Ordinance, on which three ministers of your

government went to the President to obtain his signature.

Allow it to lapse.

We are farmers; we do not think ‘strategically’, it is not part of our nature. We call

upon you, through this letter, that if the Ordinance is put before the parliament

and passed on the strength of brute majority, then we will be forced to take the

road of non-violent struggle and protest to protect our livelihoods and our rights.

This is because the 3 most important elements of the new Act, which were responses

to the decades and decades of injustice to us, viz. a) consent of affected families

prior to land acquisition, b) Social Impact Assessment, and, c) clear definition of

public purpose, are rendered redundant through the Ordinance.

We hope that you will understand the serious ramifications of this on the country

as a whole and make necessary announcements in this regard as a matter of urgency.

We are also ready to have a detailed discussion with you on this issue at a date and

time convenient to you. If you so wish we could also send you a note detailing our

apprehensions and possible (ill) effects of this measure.

Yours sincerely,

The content clearly mentions the simple demand which can be met either with inhouse review or talks with the farmers. There is no point in creating it an issue against the government. I hope more sincere efforts would be on to resolve the issue..

DECENTRALISED PLANNING – RHETORIC VS. REALITY: ANIRBAN SHETH

Excellent article regarding the decentralised planning in West Bengal. The efforts are good to incorporate the policies as well as ground level realities in the state. The planning framework in the country must understake steps to realise the dreams for the success of grass root democracy.
Here is the link for you...

https://expldev.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/decentralised-planning-rhetoric-vs-reality-anirban-sheth/

Corporate to cooperate with Governments to meet Development Targets?

Recently the Vibrant Gujarat 2015, concluded in Gandhinagar and host of CEO and top management of corporate world descended to support the agenda of Mr. Modi, as PM of India. The event hosted by Gujarat Government saw a mix of Modi and current CM Mrs. Patel. A careful integration of Global, national and regional development hopes were laid with most of the government departments pursued the corporate world to invest in their activities. The responsibilities of the government is now extended to the CEOs to help them in making infrastructure ready for massive investment in later stages. Of course promises made in most of the sectors as usual by national investors worth lakhs of crores, figures ranging from 2 lakh to 20 lakh crores. Wide investment in the state economies shows the advancement made by the state in pursuing the corporate s. Though the direct benefits are yet to be seen in the perspective of people since hardly quarter of the investments promised in earlier events has been materialized.

The investors were keen to be partner with the departments and state officials were quick enough to take promises of the investments. No body knows the serious viability and realization capacity of these deals. But the image of the state shows improvement in eyes of investors. The foreign delegates were happy but tizzy about actual realization. With slow world economy the monies required for the investment is hard to come by in the near future. The promised land of 'Smart' cities in Dholera and GIFT city could not see much more energy from investors. The land deals half completed in some cases are hard to realize due to slow growth in the international and national economies.

The bullish national approach to the economy is due to commitment of the ruling party are centre and state. The harsh development reality with the newly formed NITI Ayog (in lieu of planning commission) must face to keep the corporate and finance department happy. The task of winning the hearts of million citizens comes from showcase of implementing the schemes. The half baked approach of the ideas in Land Acquisition, Safai and development planning little serious change in government thinking. The facilitation of the investors is great and so was the promises, when we are going to see the real investors from distant land is hard to get. The stake of traditional partners like Japan, US, Australia over the Denmark, Finland, UK, South Africa is high due to long term commitments, but very cautious in approaching the Indian market. The system is ready to welcome them but lacks the down right commitment towards its own people.

India being the world market cannot expect export to the world till we find market for ourselves. We may not find export improving unless the corporate giants enter India on their own term to exploit the resources. After all they must promise profits for their investors. Keen to raise the human resources India still aspires to become largest 'Coolie' supplying nation to serve the multi national corporate. Despite trying to raise the bar for improving innovation and competitiveness India as a nation made to believe all we can do is to supply human labour in addition to get exploited of our resources. The pain to deal with the corporate is to facilitate them with land, capital and labour and allow them to take profits. When Indian systems would get benefited to invest further in social sector depends still on the tax paid by the resident citizens.

The PPP model adopted to give the infrastructure projects to corporate also enlists the possibilities of linking a system of paying tax money to corporate funds. The pity Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) unless sees light of day there is little chance of return on the social investment government would make in future. The viability of the policy framework depends on the markets, when the planned economies is rejected by the new governments. The new directions adopted provides little scope of the focus to investments in backward areas unless supports the investment by the corporate. The state governments must be ready to provide for the land, power and labour to the corporate guests in order to seek handful employment to its citizens.

The quick clearances of the projects, and easily twisted approach to resource management would evolve the exploitation more planned to extract the resources at minimum price and maximum benefits to the investors. The citizens must pay for the cost incurred to the governments which than can be shared with the corporate entity with the sound hope to have return on the investments. Not all remains hopeless in the dawn of new market and investment led government philosophy, with 'Make in India' campaign and realization of the social dreams. The easy arrangement with the World Banks (WB) for the loans which cities would need would further tangle and pledge the future Indian institutional capital to the corporate.

The images of the earlier, 'Bombay Plan' when eager investors lined up to partner with governments, though government decided to go public by setting large public sector undertaking. This time the governments is making large enterprise which is owned by the public to partner with corporate to justify the development targets. Corporate must participate with the governments to meet the development targets. Like most of the funds in social sector must now be routed through the expert corporate entity, the operations and management of the enterprise must also facilitate the improvement in the delivery and quality targets.

The nation must be sleeping is they do not react into the corporate take over of the public systems citing lack of public funds and their inability to manage. The market based economy needs to be most regulated and guided than the socialist economies. The wheel may turn back since the motive of profits must not be for the public benefits, and entirely least cost. The community till than must be diligent customers and good employee in order to allow the corporate to function and cooperate with the government to meet the development targets.  

Planning Commission gone to dustbin, now 'Niti Ayog' : India reduced to blah blah development

The government must set the priority on the basic essence of Indian planning system. The proposed renaming of planning commission, has no meaning unless there is functional change. Its not clear what the government wants, just throwing away the organisation and function is not the intention. May be blindly following the US way of doing of the things means we are entering into capitalist based economic system. But this would always increase fight between the states, and center should have minimum role in planning of state. Are states prepared to open planning and policy making. Policy making at the national level had been centres task and planning commission did many good things, just before rejected due to dislike of developed state as well as BJP ruled states. The axis of development would change post congress era but whether it should go away from constitutional commitments. If not, planning commission is best option available with little reform to suit the current macro requirements. Its sad that intellectuals and politicians who had taken big and bold steps are silent on serious basis of Indian economic and development system. This also shows serious lapse on our commitment to the world bodies. Is that so simple to change the name ' Niti Ayog' i.e. Policy commission, what about five year plan, we are getting away from plan regime means we do not now talk of poverty, inequality, inclusion and employment, but talk more of export-import, national security, industries, SEZ and urbanization. The national macro priorities have flipped now till they receive some serious thoughts from planning from below.

The policy making is loose till there is some essence in planning. Many have in past talked about planning from below, which mean decentralization of decisions. India needs to rethink on the development agenda at par with the directions from the UNDP or ADB or WTO or UNFCC in order to follow the agenda of world on one hand and look for the solutions for the problems at hand. The land and agricultural policies connected with the livelihood of the masses cannot be resolved by making policy (we already have plenty). The centre needs to redistribute the funds in order to reduce the inequality amongst the states and its people. The resources in the country is not equally distributed thus making the role of centre very important to address the regional and sector based issues.

The past commission did not pay much attention to the regional needs including those of states and districts, the legislative power given to the local bodies including district authorities also needs to be enhanced. The district development plans must now be given top priority while taking for the developments. Most of the problem facing the country are felt locally and can be resolved by having the integrated development plans. The resource exploitation has become serious threat to the eco-systems, fueling the migrations trends. The justifiable development must be achieved by going towards the people centeric approach in planning.

Where is direction to the nation by changing these names, the frequency of neglect of the primary and secondary sector is serious. While growth may happen from the FDI investments but this would also destroy the synergies between the people and state. The manufacturing capacities of the Indian people and markets are understated and killed by systematic intrusion by the foreigners in our economic space. It seems we would be back to the imperialism of economic character with more loose strings now going into the MNC giants. The vested interest have taken now control of the economic systems to retain the benefits of economic growth to few and planning to leave the rest of India on its own.

Instead of reviving the public systems if governments in power in centre and state chooses to ignore them, there is going to be total chaos in social order which might be starting from below. The time might be appropritate for the citizens and working class to understand that their strengths are misunderstood in present context. India, must be awake to the changes and support where ever  these are appropriate but also be strong enough to resist the change which can hamper their economic and social prospects.