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Antara Das

`Acquiring land for industrialisation should be suspended till then'

MS MEDHA PATKAR (right), social activist, and Ms Mahasweta Devi, writer, at a `people's hearing' at Singur in West Bengal — Sushanta Patronobish

Singur (Hooghly) , Oct 27

The Land Acquisition Act of 1894 is a British legacy and until this law is amended, all procedures and processes of acquiring land for industrialisation should be suspended, according to Ms Medha Patkar, prominent social activist.

This was one of the proposals that Ms Patkar came up with as part of some major interim conclusions after attending a `people's hearing' organised by Sanghati Udyog and Singur Krishi Jana Raksha Committee on Friday in Singur, in West Bengal's Hooghly district, where Tata Motors is planning to set up a small car factory.

"It is not that the local community is opposed to industrialisation per se, but that they have their own viewpoint on development," she said. This must be taken into account if indeed the stated public purpose of Tata Motors in acquiring the land was `socio-economic development of the locality.'

`Make public'

Ms Patkar also requested the West Bengal Government to make available in the public domain the documents related to the project such as the memorandum of understanding, the correspondences between the government and Tata Motors as well as other industries and the project report.

"The government must also involve the local community in a dialogue, a right guaranteed to them under the 73rd Amendment," she said. "The system of prior informed consent must also be followed by every single government," the activist said.

Arguing in favour of a proper rehabilitation policy, Ms Patkar said that there should be minimum displacement and that too, with the approval of the local community. She also favoured an all-party consensus to decide on the kind of industrialisation that should be adopted.

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