Major private and government projects have been running into problems recently in India due to agitation by farmers who are demanding more compensation for the acquisition of their ancestral lands. The latest dispute involves farmers' resistance and ongoing protests since late March against a $6.7 billion oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Rajasthan, northwestern India, which industry advocates say will produce nine million tons of oil annually in the state.
The farmers in the region are staging regular demonstrations and refusing to allow the government to acquire their land, which they have held and farmed for more than a century growing mainly pearl millet. They are stating that the compensation being offered to them for the ancestral land is inadequate.
After several rounds of talks failed, the state government of Rajasthan — located in the city of Jaipur, around 260km from the Indian capital New Delhi — is now considering shifting the refinery to another nearby location because of the constant pressure exerted by farmers and local residents.
Rajasthan's government is now acquiring about 926 hectares of land for the oil refinery project in the Thar desert area of Barmer, which sits on the border with Pakistan. Industry has estimated the Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya (MBA) fields in Barmer have gross recoverable oil reserves and resources of approximately 1 billion barrels.
The Rajasthan region currently contributes more than one-fifth of India's domestic crude production — about 175,000 barrels of oil per day, or 8.75 million tons per year).
The oil industry, particularly Cairn India which discovered the reserves, says that the establishment of Rajasthan's first refinery will generate thousands of jobs and draw in investment from various sectors including real estate and hotel businesses.
But women residents of the affected villages of Lelaala, Janduau Ki Dhani, Saromondi and Leelasar Kolu in Barmer, where the refinery and petrochemical complex is now scheduled to be built, aren't responding to the promise of jobs any more positively than their male counterparts. They too have now joined the protests, which started in March after the Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Rajasthan government and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), an Indian government-owned oil and natural gas company.
Many of the protesters are fasting while staging sit-ins, alleging that the government is not providing enough compensation for their land. The government claims it offered the farmers 1 million rupees per 3,300 square yard of area, but the farmers say they want 100 times that amount. The farmers cite that the land has been their only means of income for generations — and that the relocation of their families requires far greater compensation.
Rajasthan government’s efforts to convince the farmers otherwise have been to little avail. “We are trying to make the farmers understand that the refinery will bring about a complete transformation of their area in terms of development. However, they have refused to budge,” a senior government officer said.
Meghchand, a local agitating farmer, said that he and fellow protesters are setting up a committee to hold talks with the government.
“We would die [before we] let the government acquire the land forcefully. The government will have to give us proper compensation before acquiring the land,” said Meghchand.
Another resident, Ramchandra, said that hundreds of farmers would be rendered homeless after the land acquisition. “The least the government can do is to meet the demand of farmers,” Ramchandra said.
The government's acquisition of people's private property for public or industrial projects has led to several serious conflicts in various parts of India in recent years.
In August of 2010, five people were killed and several others were injured in Bhatta Prasaul, a village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, when the local state government tried to acquire land for building an expressway.
Similarly, widespread agitations took place between 2006 and 2008 against the then-Left Front government's bid to acquire land in Singur, located in the eastern region of West Bengal, for a proposed Nano project development of Tata Motors.
The agitation forced the automobile giant to relocate the plant to Sanand in Gujarat, and propelled the Trinamool party to power in West Bengal, breaking 35 years of the Left Front's uninterrupted rule.
In March of 2007, at least 14 villagers were killed and 70 others were injured when the Communist Party of India forcefully tried to acquire land for a special economic zone in West Bengal’s Nandigram.
Land acquisition is currently undertaken in India under the 1894 Land Acquisition Act. Since 2011, after the Bhatta Prasaul violence, a new law called the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill has been proposed for the rehabilitation and resettlement of families affected by land acquisitions. India's parliament has yet to pass the bill.
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