Land disputes is costing India 100 Billion Dollars of Investment!
We very well know the story of Tata Nano Land Dispute. What was West Bengal’s loss though was Gujarat’s profit.
However, most of the projects are not as lucky as Nano to get a Land replacement. 70% of total 190 projects that were supposed to be implemented have been stalled due to Land acquisition related disputes. The ECO Pulse study by ASSOCHAM has revealed this startling fact.
Most of these projects are basically International companies needing to set their shop in India.
For e.g: 22 major steel projects in the country worth USD 82 billion are being held up because of procedural delays in obtaining environmental impact assessment clearance and delays in land acquisition mainly due to public protests. One such project – Arcelor Mittal which nearly pulled out of building 2 steel plants that would pump close to USD 20 billion. The reason – They were unable to acquire land in Jharkhand and Orissa.
There are currently 18 strangled projects of India Inc to the tune of Rs.244,815.5 crore (Rs.2.45 trillion) remained on papers, in the form of memorandum of understanding (MoU) and agreements over the past three-four years.
If at all these projects had been implemented, it would have created Jobs for 164,000 people directly and 270,000 people indirectly !
Although, It is important for farmers to safeguard their lands – But the compensation offerings are very much in line with Market & Real Estate conditions. Its not pointing here that Farmers should get a raw deal – Its their land, they have right to decide what to do with their lands.
Why is government not intervening. This is a win-win situation. If Indian Government takes these projects seriously, There are plenty of solutions available to overcome these Land disputes.
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