Hard put to land a blow

When the BJP leaders including its Finance Minister and the Prime Minister, plead for patience in reaping the fruits of development, they certainly have some substance to it as resolving the problems is a bit long-winding. Unless the land issue is resolved now, there is nothing that the government could do in these areas. However, opposition to the land bill is only growing by the day

If the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, sounded a bit desperate in his speech on Land reforms at the CMs meeting at the NITI Aayog in New Delhi on July 15, it was understandable. After all, he is running out of time as far as this particular pending Bill is concerned. The success of the Modi government is hinged to the implementation of the Land Bill as it has been conceived. But, a united opposition is threatening to derail the plans of the Centre.

When Modi was pleading for keeping politics out of the Bill and urging the State governments to come out with their own proposals notwithstanding the financial implications of the proposed hike in compensation, he was not playing to the gallery. It was, as far as Modi was concerned, a sincere attempt to convince the law-makers on the need to have such a law if rural development were to take place in thecountry.

The plans of the government, as envisaged by the NITI Aayog, are heavily dependent on the success of this particular Land Bill. Either in implementing the projects related to energy, roadways, ports and airports or in inviting big industry to realise the dream of “Make in India,” availability of land is key to each of these and in the absence of a proper land acquisition, compensation and rehabilitation programme nothing would materialize.

Stalled projects, mostly in infrastructure and manufacturing sectors are going to put on hold Modi’s ambitious pro-industry vision. If we consider the value of the stalled projects as a percentage of the GDP of the country (till the third quarter of 2014-15), the total is 6.9 per cent with 5.5 per cent of this being in the private sector and 1.4 per cent in the public sector.

There is a vicious cycle to this blockade. The NITI Aayog emphasizes that stalled projects are not only blocking investment but also affecting the balance sheets of the banks, which in turn is leading to lower fund availability. This fund crunch is slowing down investments in projects but also leading to the projects getting delayed further. This is too cyclical to be ignored, the Aayog has predicted.

The welfare side of the Modi’s vision envisaged by the NITI Aayog too wants to provide each house with round-the-clock power supply along with clean drinking water, a toilet along with road connectivity. While, electrification of the remaining 20,000 villages by 2020 is one of the goals, connecting 1,70,000 habitations with all-weather roads is yet another major challenge for the government.

The 75th year of Indian Independence in 2022, will have to achieve the said goals if the long march towards self-sufficiency and prosperity (whose???) is to be achieved. In meeting this challenge, five issues remain the core to the problem solving: Enhance public investment, kick-start top 100 stalled projects for speedy execution as it will address 83 per cent of investment, identify projects for utilising budget allocations, speed up approval processes, and commence execution of projects.

In all, there are 745 central sector projects under implementation asof now and 258 out of these cost Rs 1,000 crore and more (each) while 487 projects cost Rs 150 crore to Rs 1,000 crore. A total of 81 per cent of projects are either delayed or with no completion date with a time overrun of one month to 20 years. Modi’s administration has been asked to sort out these at the earliest. The government has drafted a sectoral plan to on the completion of these projects.

When the BJP leaders including its Finance Minister and the Prime Minister, plead for patience in reaping the fruits of development, they certainly have some substance to it as resolving the problems is a bit long-winding. Unless the land issue is resolved now, there is nothing that the government could do in these areas. And here is where Modi’s problems encounter him.

However, not many of these challenges are new ones. These are the same that cropped up during the UPA regime too. It was this very BJP which vehemently opposed the progress. (What tantamounts to progress or development is subject to debate anyway). The problem with Modi’s style of governance is this: it is too individualistic. There is not much room for consultation and debate. Difference of opinion is not well received always, either within the party or outside.

This is where the opposition is feels the sting. It feels it is getting bull-dozed in everything. The basic parliamentary consultative methods seem to be diminishing. The Ordinance raj coming to the fore is an example of the same. Hence, the Opposition is a bit irritated. Even on issues where a consensus is possible, it seems to elude the Parliament sometimes because of this unilateral attitude of decision-making.

Examine this. Just ahead of the NITI Aayog’s second meet of the CMs, its vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya sets the tone and tenor for the CMs’ meet. He goes and urges the States to liberalise their land use policy and introduce transparent land leasing laws to facilitate industrialization and investments. "In the context of the difficulties in land acquisition under the 2013 land acquisition law, states wishing to facilitate industrialisation can further benefit from liberal land leasing if they simultaneously liberalise the use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes," Panagariya underscored.

He further goes on to add that as the conversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural use requires permission from the authority, which takes a long time, “the State governments can address this barrier by either amending the law to permit non-agricultural use or by the introduction of time-bound clearances of applications for the conversion of agricultural land use in implementing regulations.”

The beauty of these developmental policies of the governments, which tout the interests of the big industry, lies in the fact that it makes everything look simplistic and rosy to the loser of land. Aravind Panagariya’s win-win reform policy explicitly explains: "Tenant will have an incentive to make investment in improvement of land. Landowner will be able to lease land without fear of losing it to the tenant, and the government will be able to implement its policies efficiently."

Not surprisingly, the Prime Minister now pleads with the Opposition not to stall his module of development. In conceding the demand for enhanced compensation, he is only alarmed at the delay in securing the Opposition's consent for the Land Bill. The Prime Minister, who was chairing the second meeting of the NITI Aayog the other day while discussing Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, stated that both the Centre and the State should work closely to end poverty.

He said the political deadlock over land acquisition was seriously impacting rural development, including the creation of schools, hospitals, roads and irrigation projects. These parameters that Modi highlights, of development, would be possible only if someone somewhere loses land for the sake of industry. Please observe, nowhere does the emphasis seem to be on giving land for industry. It is always for development and infrastructure. That is the essence of it. It is a fight between those "to whom the land belongs to" and those “who belong to the land.” if one were to read in between the lines, there would be no confusion.