Today peasants are being forcibly evicted from their land which is being given to MNCs and comprador big business houses and they are being thrown to the imperialist and capitalist sharks. For this the colonial Land Acquisition Act, 1894 is being pressed into service.

The tribal inhabited areas rich in mineral resources are being handed over to foreign companies and comprador big business houses for exploitation and common people, particularly tribals, are being displaced in large numbers. This problem is very acute in Orissa, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and some other provinces. On the other hand, in the name of industrialization, fertile cultivated land is being taken over by the Govt. for the corporate houses for developing Multiplexes, Malls, SEZs, etc. The biggest blow of this is being borne by landless, poor and middle peasants. Obviously food security is not a concern of the rulers gloating in globalization.

This forcible eviction is being resisted by the affected people and the peasant masses are bravely facing police repression and atrocities. Kalinganagar tribals' heroic resistance has become legendary. These struggles are part of the revolutionary struggles of the peasantry in our country. All progressive and democratic forces must support these struggles.

Recently, farmers of village Bajheda Khurd of district Ghaziabad faced barbaric violence by UP police. Their crime was that they refused to let go of their agricultural land, acquired under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

According to an enquiry report of Janhastakshep, Delhi, the UP government had acquired 2,500 acres of land of seven villages including Bajheda Khurd three years back for setting up a power plant. This land had been acquired by the UP Small Industries Development Corporation (UPSIDC) for Rs. 1 lakh, 34 thousand per bigha (0.2 acres) while it had declared a price of Rs. 3 lakh, 10 thousand per bigha and the market price was even higher than this. After acquiring the land UPSIDC gave it to Reliance Power for 40 % of the acquisition value, i.e. 60% of the cost was borne by the UP government.

The Central Govt. is the approving authority for proposals for SEZs; the proposals are being sent in by state govts. The Maharashtra Govt. has stopped giving green signals for SEZs and a major reason for this is the ground level opposition to land acquisition. The Central proposals allow 75% other activities on SEZ land and for this reason builders rather than investors are getting attracted to these areas.

Recently the police brutally lathi charged peasants opposing forcible land acquisition for an SEZ at Higanwadi near Pune. Three SEZs are planned in this area and a lot of land is being forcibly acquired from the peasantry for the same.

"No to Industrialization at the expense of agricultural land". With this slogan a padyatra was organized on July 9, '06 by CPI(ML)-New Democracy, CPI(ML) led by Com. Kanu Sanyal and CPI(ML)-Liberation to support the struggling peasants of Signur. It started from 6 Mauza whose rich agricultural land is to be transferred to TATAs with hundreds of local people supporting padyatra. A meeting was held at Ujjawal Sangha Club. Speakers including Com. P.S. Thakur highlighted the treachery of the State Govt. The rally continued for five hours ending at Madhusudanpur.

On the land acquired, the government planned to establish the power plant. However no work has begun on the plant for last two and a half years, though it was to be completed in 2 years. It was also supposed to provide employment to the people and the area was to be developed commercially. There are other questions. Though this power plant requires only 500 acres of land, the government acquired 2,500 acres, which people believe will be used for commercial purpose and selling plots.

There is also this question as to why is it that the government, which has no funds to subsidise agricultural inputs, give remunerative prices to farmers, waive their loans, is spending 60% of the cost of this land (nearly Rs 125 crores) for a profit making commercial house? And for this, why is the government so desperate as to unleash this kind of a barbaric attack?

Bajheda Khurd is not isolated. A total of 182 villages near Dadri, upto Bulandshahar are to be acquired for establishing Greater Noida phase II for industrialisation, SEZs, Malls, Multiplexes and urbanization. It is a different matter that most of Greater Noida phase I is still lying vacant and many industries can be established there. For that matter Noida which was to become a industrial centre is more or less purely a commercial and residential centre, with a few small industries interspersed in between.

UP government has been implementing this policy in other areas too. Recently farmers of Bhadoi have filed a litigation for return of 1037 acres of their land which had been acquired 3 years back for developing a Special Economic Zone, but not a brick has been laid. In Gorakhpur, a Buddhist trust, funded by donations from Japan, is the target of peoples' anger whose 500 acre agricultural land is being acquired by the government for the trust.

Though ruling class politicians speak in many voices, this is a problem in all states. In Haryana and in Punjab the Congress governments have acquired around 25,000 acres land to be given to Mukesh Ambani to develop Malls, commercial complexes, Multiplexes, SEZs, Export Zones, etc. In West Bengal, 1253 acres of good agricultural land is being acquired in Signur block of Howrah district, 37 kms from Calcutta for a car plant to be established by Tatas even when plenty of industrial land acquired in the past is freely available.

In a note prepared by the CPM run West Bengal government for its ruling partners, the govt. has said that "There is no alternative but to acquire land ........  huge tracts of land would be required and the scope for examining the character of land is very limited". Further "The number of labourers in non-agricultural sector has gone up and cultivation of land is fast becoming a loss - making affair". It accepts that "agricultural products have failed to keep pace with the costs or general price level and as a consequence, profitability has also declined". It makes no proposal for increasing agricultural income but recommends acquiring agricultural land for "construction of roads, flyovers, developing irrigation schemes and extending railway connectivity". With regard to utilising land of closed industrial units it says that "In a country like ours it is very difficult and time consuming to utilise the land of closed units." It has identified more than 1500 acres of land of closed private units in 5 districts and 2000 acres of land of closed public sector units. Yet it is going ahead with acquiring agricultural land.

Governments in India, under directions from the World Bank have been acquiring agricultural land in various parts of the country. The governments are generally quite determined to implement their plans and hence they use crude force.

Mukesh Ambani to build ‘Shanghai’ in Haryana

The Central Govt. has approved proposals for 150 SEZs (special economic Zones) throughout the country, and Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has since asserted that ‘even more’ will be approved.

According to the Central SEZ Act 2005 industries in these areas will be given cheap land, tax free periods, cheap infrastructural facilities like power and electricity and several other facilities. What has been left unwritten is what is the trade unions’ apprehension: that gradually these areas will be entitled to finish off labour laws. A second aspect is that in the state laws being framed under this Central Act, some modifications in existing labour laws are already being effected keeping in mind the level of the state’s labour movement. Such changes have been made in A.P., Maharashtra and U.P.

In Haryana the Hooda Govt. has declared the Faridabad Industrial Area as a special economic zone. Additionally 15000 acres in Gurgoan and Rewari districts are being acquired from farmers by the Haryana Govt. to be handed over to Mukesh Ambani so that he should make a SEZ ‘bigger than Shanghai'! This area is adjacent to Maneshwar where mostly MNCs including the infamous Honda Company, are situated. Rajasthan has also announced that its area adjoining the above areas will be developed into a special economic zone.

As is well known the significance of Shanghai viz SEZs is that this is a famous industrial city of China which had been turned into a SEZ under Deng’s regime after coining that to be rich is glorious. The vast area continues to house sweatshops where MNCs bleed lakhs of Chinese workers for a pittance and officially no labour laws are in force. This is what the Indian ruling classes aspire to do in India – force the peasantry out of land which in turn will be handed over to corporates and lend the working class to unrestrained exploitation.

It is thus encouraging farmers, particularly the well off sections, to sell their high value land and live off the capital earned. It is promoting active sections amongst them to indulge in and earn from land trade and commercial development. It is diverting attention away from the problem of low income in agricultural operations. It is promoting import of food grains by MNCs as an answer to the reduction in food production. It is also able to use these new areas being added to the land market to draw investments from the rich urban sections which has been seeking avenues safer than the stock exchange to invest its surplus.

It is important that all the acquisitions are being done under provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. The governments had a right to acquire private land only for use for public purposes like hospitals, roads, schools, government offices, PSUs etc. The law has since been amended to cover public 'interest' and any project sanctioned by the government. The above project (Ghaziabad) has been developed under the excuse of providing people with electricity by a private concern. For this lower than market value is given to the owner farmers and the entire gram sabha and common lands are taken over free of cost. The landless who constitute nearly 40% to 50 % of these western UP, Haryana and Punjab villages and depend on these common lands for acquiring fodder, for civic and other common purposes, are left deprived without any compensation. Their means of livelihood are taken away without providing any alternate means of livelihood or employment.

What use the companies put this land to is quite another question. Say for example, in Noida land of the farmers, taken over for industrial establishments has been used by the land Mafia and traders to make huge money. When the power plant will come up is not known. Certainly the land acquired is much more than required for the purpose. Such land sooner or later is going to be used for commercial transactions.

The government of India has also signed a new pact with the USA for inviting 100% FDI for development of plantations. The MNCs normally look for cheap agricultural land in third world countries to develop plantations useful for their markets. Latin American countries have seen many such plantations.

All this makes immediate commercial sense for the moneyed sections. But it uproots the farmers, deprives them of their means of living. It certainly adds to the food security crisis and forces more and more imports, at higher and higher rates. It converts the landless into destitutes immediately. They are the ones to suffer most from the rising cost of food grains. By putting cash into the hands of farmers deprived of their land, it may bolster the consumer markets for a short time, in the long run it will be disastrous.

Punjab: Struggle Against Land Acquisition

The Congress Govt. of Punjab has issued notification to acquire 376 ares of land in Dhaula, Fatehgarh chhanan and Sanghera villages in Barnala Subdivision of Sangrur dist. for Trident group of industries. Farmers opposed this as the rate being offered was very low compared to the market rate and they could not buy alternate land with it. In Apirl 2005 farmers set up a Committee against Displacement. They launched a relay hunger strike before SDM, Barnala. Leaders of different political parties came to address the farmers and eventurally the DC, Sangurur talked to them. But without their knowledge the DC transferred the lands in the name of Trident Group in the records. Meanwhile after the summer crops the farmer sowed the kharif crop. After this they were stopped from going to their land by heavy police deployment.

Against this a three day dharna was held. On 19th March '06, when farmers were going for the dharna, they were stopped by the police. They blocked the road for some time but at night 600 farmers were arrested. In the course of their detention, an aged farmer Sarmukh Singh died in Ludhiana jail for want of medical care. Against this, BKU(Ugrahan) and AIKMS held a Kisan Panchayat jointly on April 24th.

Meanwhile it was learnt that land was to be acquired from two villages, Halwara and Aithiana of the same district for an international airport. The people of these two villages formed an anti-displacement committee and held akhand path on April 24, '06 where on AIKMS initiative, a demand was drafted against proposed land acquisition. On 9th May, a dharna was held outside the office of DC Ludhiana. The memorandum demanded that 2000 acres of land under control of Halwara airforce should be used for the purpose and more land should not be acquired. On 12th May a two hour road block was organized throughout Punjab. On 17th May a demonstration was organized in Barnala in which peasants from all districts of Malwa region participated.

It must be realised that the tall claims of the government notwithstanding, policies pursued by the ruling classes are not taking India towards becoming a super power, but only a supermarket under MNC control. While all means of production are being taken over, farmers and workers are being left in destitution to act as cheap labour. For revival of production and markets in India income of farmers should be increased who provide the real purchasing base in the country. With low purchasing power our own markets and growth will saturate very fast. We must realise that we cannot grow in the long run on export of software only. Soft options are in fact not there, only the hard road of struggle for saving land and agriculture from MNCs, big business houses. For that a determined struggle against the Govts., Central and States, which are acting as their loyal servitors is a must.