Rajiv Dixit's Thoughts on Land Acquisition Act

Rajiv Dixit's own Words

" Amongst the innumerable laws made by the Britishers for the exploitation of India, one was the Land Acquisition Act, which allowed the British government to seize land property of any individual. This law came into existence in around 1824 and primarily targeted the farmers.
Estimates show that in around 1824 there were 20 crore farmers in India each having atleast 10 acres of land. This law aimed at seizing land for use by British government, leaving the farmers landless whose primary source of livelihood was the land which was used for agriculture. "

In around 1849 this Act was amended to make it further cruel, that if the British government decides to take the land of some farmer then the government shall decide the compensation the farmer is supposed to get in exchange for the land(which was always very low), and that the farmer cannot challenge the government’s decision in any court of law. Moreover if the farmer resisted the government’s order then any kind of violent action could be taken against them.

Till today , even after 62 years of independence this law continues to exploit the farmers of India. It is a point worth paying attention to that the 60,000 kilometres of rail-tracks of Indian Railway have been laid down mostly on the lands of these farmers. If the Indian Railway earns thousands of crores annually using these rail tracks, and if it exists for the welfare of Indians then don’t these farmers deserve a share of this profit ?

Industrialists are mostly given large acres of land for prices like Rs. 1 per acre , on grounds of arguments like economic growth, industrialization and SEZ(Special Economic Zones) etc. But do the industrialists really get the land for Rs. 1 /acre. It doesn’t need much explanation about the amount of bribe that political parties take in to allot vast stretches of lands (that belonged to farmers) to these industrialists. So the government is basically acting as land dealers , just interested in their share of profit, having little concern of industrial growth or farmers at all.