Land is an emotive issue in India

By Praful Patel
Civil Aviation Minister

After having set his Thai chicken red curry to simmer, chief chef Praful Patel left the kitchen counter and led fellow cooks Sunil Mittal and Vijay Mallya to the restaurant, where a gathering of Delhi’s corporate chieftains were waiting, washing down tasty tidbits of gossip and hors d’oeuvre with champagne. Mr Patel kicked off the debate on the Cookout theme: No Man’s Land — Getting Real About Real Estate.

The central point of the minister’s contention was that land is not just a matter of livelihood — for which alternative arrangements could possibly be made — but also a deeply emotive issue in India. And for this reason, releasing land for commercial use has to be a participatory affair for both farmers who lose land and developers who put the land to commercial use.

One-time compensation, therefore, might not be the best way to go forward, Mr Patel suggested. He cited the example of Magarpatta, a township off Pune owned by farmers’ joint stock company , promoted by Satish Magar. Mr Patel had specifically invited Mr Magar over for the cookout, to share his experience of organising the farmers into owners of not just the company that built the township but also of assorted enterprises that deliver services to the occupants of the town.

Mr Patel said that paying the best compensation to farmers and land-owners should not be the end in itself, they should be made partners in the progress. “It is possible. Mr Magar has done it in Pune. I have specially invited him to this gathering to explain that one can acquire lands from a group of farmers, pay them compensation and at the same time make them equity partners,” Mr Patel told CEOs. Mr Satish Magar is the chairman & managing director of Magarpatta Township Development & Construction Company.

The civil aviation minister acknowledged that releasing land for new projects has become a problem not just for the private sector but also for the government. “If I have to build a new runway at an existing airport or build a new airport in a town without one, finding the needed land is a problem,” he said.

CEOs present at the Cookout agreed that there should be a transparent rehabilitation & resettlement policy which even spells out the compensation formula. The government is in the process of drafting an R&R policy, which is currently being considered by a group of ministers.

Mr Patel also argued that the policy should encourage balanced regional growth. He pointed at glaring regional disparity with reference to industrial backwardness of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. “Even my Maharashtra is not an exception. Maharashtra does not mean Mumbai, Pune and Nasik. Vast tracts of India are remote from development and we must ensure that economic benefits should be spread evenly,” he said.

No state can prevent industrialization: Sunil Mittal

Middlemen should be banned: Vijay Mallya