Times Of India, Kolkata
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Fair Share
Make tribals stakeholders in development
A democratic
government needs to work for a peaceful atmosphere within the state to create a condition that brings it stability and prosperousness. Democratic countries ensure it through the creation of organisations that cater to the needs of the general mass.
In India even violence when exercised in the interest of the state or to safeguard a greater damage is often ignored by the authorities. This has resulted in various undemocratic activities and deprivations among the weaker sections and the tribal people. These deprived mass had often to pay heavily for the constructional
projects meant for the greater good and prosperity of the nation. As a result they had to loose their land and the earnings. The necessities had been for projects for dams, mines, and building of factories, roads and cities. A very merge percent had been rehabilitated though the government has been making tall promises ever since its formation in keeping with the norms of democracy. In the initial forty years since Independence almost 40 percent of the triblas had been affected and only 25 percent has been rehabilitated since. Development has become a threat to these people whose immediate needs get ignored in the process. They refuse to sacrifice their self-interest. The government fails to provide necessary and satisfactory compensation to these
ousted landholders, which leads them to pick up extremist ideologies and join political parties that use violence to enforce their demands. Even the Maoist violence is an expression of this type of deprivation.
Recently the government is giving some thought to these deprived and frustrated populace who have been long undermined by the democracy. Recently a welcome proposition is to empower the triblas with a share in the financial benefits of the projects that they help in building by giving up their
lands and livelihood. Even contemplations are on to bring some reasonable modifications to the land acquisition Laws and the policies which settle the rehabilitation of the ousted mass. Previously the settlement was to provide cash and job for one member of the family who had to give the land for a project. This caused a dispute and most of the cases ended up in fights or in courts, which took long to be resolved and often covered the lifetime of the most eligible candidate, and in his absence the quarrel ensues afresh. Sometimes the community as a whole join in the fudes and everything even longer to settle.
The new proposal that has been made by the government is a long drawn one but is sure to bring some benefits. At first the land required for the governmental projects would be given to a specially formed company with people experienced in land related business. The ousted people would have shareholders of this particular company. The project that is being carried on the land would lease the land from the land holding company and pay it annually at the market rate. This would generate an income automatically for the suffering people. Often the cry is heard about depriving the tribals and the ousted of the profits the government makes on the projects they establish on the land acquired from them. This new solution would answer that grievance up to a part. Besides if the next suggestion of paying the share of profit before the beginning of the project is followed then the problems arising out of such issues could be drastically minimised.
Though the suggestion made is quite effective yet doubt remains regarding the success of such projects and
proper benefit reaching the right person. The question about who is the rightful heir of the share provided would still remain a big question and fights from these issues would still continue. So the proper inhabitants of the lands have to be identified before the lands are acquired at all. Then the question of generating the proper and adequate amount and proper disbursing of the profits would remain another matter. The things would need to pass through so many hands and they would require so much paper work and documentation that the government would have to bear some extra load of paying the employees and maintaining the paper work. The loyalty and honesty of the people handling these projects would also be a big question.
Above all these would be the question of convincing the people who the government wants to include in these stocks. The tiribals and the ousted populace of the areas brought under various governmental projects are generally daily earners and believe in the immediate profit that can be utilised immediately. A profit or earning that comes at the end of a year and is very slow in increasing or multiplying would hardly appear lucrative to them. Besides the instability of share prices in our country and the present global market may lead the poor people to loose both ways. To convince these laymen of the benefits and making them gather hope in this forming econonomical set up would require efficient people in these fields. Once they understand and suit themselves to the standards they will be the ultimate gainers and the government would make and keep social peace at least on this quarter to take up other sensitive issues to bring stability and prosperity to the nation.