In Pursuit of Development: Land Acquisition and the Dilution of Legal Provisions

摘要

This article examines the mechanism of land acquisition executed by the previous Government of West Bengal in Singur and Rajarhat in the name development under the purview of public purposes. The study shows that the government has diluted several existing legal provisions laid down in Land Acquisition Act (LAA) 1894 and policy guidelines of National Policy for Rehabilitation and Resettlement 2003 and 2007. Procedural amendments of legal provisions and new enactments brought about by the state government in the orbit of LAA have made the acquisition easy going rather than bestowing privilege upon farming community. The policy intervention toward rehabilitating dispossessed households has been substandard and not inclusive in nature.