PEOPLE’S PARLIAMENT SLAMS UPA GOVERNMENT: DEMANDS NON-DISPLACING DEVELOPMENT
Posted by barunroy on May 2, 2008
More than a thousand people from people’s movements from across the country have come together under the banner of Sangharsh. A three day agitation and dharna in front of the Indian Parliament in New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar was started on 28th April 2008.
A Jan Sansad (People’s Parliament) was organised today on issues of DISPLACEMENT, LAND ACQUISITION AND R&R. People’s voices on these issues have so far remained on the margins of electoral politics. A much needed platform for dialogue and engagement between people and their elected representatives was
presented today.
More than 45 organisations and movement groups who have either faced displacement or are resisting it, gave testimonies on their struggles, state repression and their vision and perspectives of development without displacement. While people affected by dams built as many as 100 years ago are still without rehabilitation, thousands more are being displaced in the name of SEZs, mining, water and power projects, forest reserves and so on.
Presentations from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa presented cases of unprecedented loot through diversion of Adivasi land and minerals. The stories from slums and the so called unauthorised colonies in Delhi, Mumbai and other cities makes it clear that for the urban poor, labourers, hawkers and small
retailers it is not ‘urban renewal’ but ‘urban removal’.
The Central Government has brought forth two Bills-The Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007 and the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2007, purportedly to strike a balance between the need for land for development and protecting the interests of the persons from whom land is statutorily acquired.
Both the Bills will have far reaching impact if enacted. In effect, these Bills sanction displacement and plunder of land and other natural resources from the people for the profit of corporations and private investors. The Land Acquisition Bill allows land to be forcefully acquired in favour of private
companies sneaking private purpose into the definition of “public purpose”. It is more regressive and anti-people than even the original colonial Act! The government pays mere lip service to protecting the rights of those whose lands are acquired. The R&R Bill does not even guarantee basics like land for land
and alternative livelihood based rehabilitation. The issue of urban displacement has been completely sidestepped yet again.
People unequivocally opposed development policies which take displacement as an inevitable eventuality. One demand has emerged from the people’s struggles across the country - a decentralised development planning process which ensures ‘development’ that is truly people centric and bases itself firmly on the
principles of democracy, social justice and equity. Concerns regarding development planning, land acquisition and resettlement and rehabilitation are intrinsically linked with one another and cannot be addressed in isolation. In fact a draft of a ‘Comprehensive Legislation on Development Planning, No
Forced Displacement, and Just Rehabilitation’ has been prepared based on Article 243, and the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments. In the true spirit of democracy, gram sabhas and municipalities are proposed to be empowered with the right to formulate district and metropolitan level development plans.
Raising their voices against the Special Economic Zone Act 2005, the people’s movements demanded that governments and different political parties should stop behaving like brokers of corporations and big companies. The groups and activists also demanded withdrawal of the proposed Coastal Zone Management(CZM) plan and Special Tourism Zone (STZ) projects.
“In an election year Congress and UPA will do well if they side with the people and not the corporate land grabbers. The Indian masses will not tolerate a government that has sold India to private companies and corporates in the form of SEZs, urban renewal and industrialisation”, said Gautam Bandhopadhyay
of Nadi Ghati Morcha. “The government is selling off water, forests and other natural resources. People have been treated as oustees and displaced. We will not tolerate the denial of our rights anymore; we will not allow another inch of land to be snatched from us”, said Vimalbhai of Matu Jan Sangathan.
