The Hindu Business Line : A humane rehab policy for land outsees on the anvil: PM

New Delhi March 8 The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, today said that the Government would soon come up with a more humane rehabilitation and resettlement policy for the families dispossessed of their land, taken over for public purposes such as special economic zones (SEZs).

Winding up the Debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President's address in the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister said that a Group of Ministers would review the approach to SEZ and also find out if there are any pitfalls in the present policy. It would be "our intention to redress whatever genuine grievances there may be. If we have made a mistake in enacting the SEZ Act, we do not stand on formality; we will make necessary correction", the Prime Minister reassured the members and put an end to the controversy about agricultural lands being grabbed by SEZ developers.

Need for industrialisation

Earlier, in a reference to the need for industrialisation, Dr Singh said that he was aware of the concern about "whether a particular process of industrialisation was leading to loss of availability of land at a pace which has undesired consequences. Those concerns have to be taken on board", he said.

Stating that the primary concern of his Government was to work for the removal of mass poverty, ignorance and disease, the Prime Minister asserted that this could be dealt only within the framework of a rapidly expanding economy. He said that if "we remain faithful and steadfast in the pursuit of this inclusive growth process, we will be able to make a significant dent on problems of poverty and unemployment".

Dr Singh said that for the first time in history, "we have managed to raise our investment rate to 34 per cent of GDP and savings rate close to 32 per cent of GDP." The Prime Minister admitted to the low growth rate in agriculture and said in a country like India where the average size of landholding was small, where there are limitations to improve farm productivity, the long-term solution was to wean the people away from agriculture, to manufacturing, to services and other non-farm pursuits. It was in this context, the industrialisation of India, creating a milieu in which industry could foster lot more jobs than before, become a priority concern, he added.

He pointed out that the Government took very seriously the challenge of near stagnation in agricultural production. "I have asked the Planning Commission to work out area-specific regional plans for the development of agriculture," he said adding that very soon a meeting of the National Development Council, especially to focus on the problems of agriculture and what needed to be done to revitalise rural economy, would be held.

On inflation, the Prime Minister said that the Government was trying to curb inflationary pressures without adversely affecting the strong growth impulses of the economy. Even as supply and demand side measures are put in place, in the medium term, he said"we must evolve a more effective strategy to increase production of foodgrains, vegetable oils, pulses and this would be a priority of the government during the 11th Five-Year Plan". He said that he was asking the Plan panel and the Ministry of Agriculture to prepare region-wise plans for revitalising agricultural economy.

The Prime Minster also referred to various economic initiatives put in place by the Government and also the internal and external security concerns and foreign policy.

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