The ugly face of land grabbing

The war of land acquisition for industrialization among poor farmers and state agencies or corporate houses simmers everywhere, from hinterland to heartland of cities. From Dhinkia (Odisha) to Singur (West Bengal) to Greater Noida (UP), the woes of farmers have never been addressed, rather state authorities have flaunted their might through engaging law enforcement agencies to suppress peaceful protests. In most cases, the protesters face the brutality of state power as a result many innocent farmers meet their tragic end, but the ugly war of land grabbing fashionably turns into maximum political opportunism. The opposition political leaders of all shades show their pretentious support to the victims just to grab the media attention and when the same parties come to power behave equally unabashedly in the same manner. When will the political hypocrisy take the least importance while mediating for the issues universal in nature? When will the states and the centre stop becoming the agents of corporate houses? When will the true spirit of sustainable development take off in this country? When will the poor farmers across India get justice for their constitutional rights? When will the nexus between government agencies and corporate houses be legally renounced? There are many unanswered questions though pop in the minds of people, the government shows its usual reluctance to address them.

Irrespective of India's economic growth in the post liberalization era, the hiatus between poor and rich has conspicuously grown further. In the name of SEZs, IT parks, real estate projects, and heavy industries, the state governments and corporate houses in tandem prefer farm lands to be acquired first essentially for two reasons: first, it's bit easier to dupe poor farmers, and second, the corporate houses find it quite easy to immediately start their projects, as they don't have to invest a lot on land filling and building connecting roads from the highways and expressways to the project location. Thus, the corporate houses give kickbacks to government agencies to act on their behalf. So what happens then is an unending saga of exploitation by state agencies. The state authorities purchase lands at a rate eligible for farm land and in turn sell it to corporate houses with lower to medium margins, but again the selling price falls far below the rate of industrial land. Eventually, the corporate houses receive all the benefits out of this illegal transactions.

Now the moot question is how long the state agencies will exploit the poor people? The manner in which farm lands are getting their ways into the land bank of corporate houses, few decades down the line India will face serious shortage of farm produces and the ever growing inflation in food grain and vegetable prices will touch the sky. The time is not too far from today when we will carry bag full of cash to buy half a basket vegetables. This is the time for serious introspection. We need a stringent bill on land acquisition for industrial purpose. India can't afford to loose any amount of farm lands for lopsided industrial development given the rising population. Development which is not sustainable is worse than underdevelopment. Is anybody listening?

Banning Endosulfan: Should India Dare to Move?

Chemicals and pesticides are generally hazardous for human beings and environment; however, there are certain standard processes and practices are followed for their safe usage. The recent move against blanket ban on endosulfan across the country hardly justifies the reason that some 63 countries across the world have already banned this pesticide and India should follow them blindly without considering its own reasons.

The report on birth defects and other environmental degradations in the Kesargod area in Kerala by certain NGOs is motivated by MNCs in European countries since endosulfan as an off-patent generic pesticide which has impeccable integrated pest control capability (almost protects a variety of 29 crops from 60 types of infestations) and furthermore India leads the production of this pesticide. There are serious conspiracies behind this blanket ban across India, which is evident from the launch of new alternatives to endosulfan by EU companies.

Consider this simple arithmetic, India produces over 70 percent of endosulfan consumed by the world farmers and horticulturers amounting to 12.5 million litres and consumes 50 percent of its own production and, if endosulfan is banned, then any alternative as suggested by EU would cost around 8 to 50 times of the price at which endosulfan is sold. The enosulfan is a cheap pesticide available at a price range of Rs. 250-285 per litre in India. Since India's farm economy is quite strong, the usage of pesticide like endosulfan is endemic across the country.

In fact, Kerala and Karnataka are not the only states in India those are using endosulfan, the most prolific users are Punjab, Haryana, UP, West Bengal, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh where there is not a single report on birth defect in these states. Forget about the reports published in media, let me tell you a fact that in Punjab there is no such report of health hazards due to endosulfan in last 50 years, and for all factual evidences Punjab is far ahead in farm products in comparison to Kerala or Karnataka.

Moreover, looking at the EU strategies to ban endosulfan and bring out some new alternatives at extremely higher price range is a clear indication of the fact that the drive against endosulfan is a conspiracy of MNCs those want to launch the product in the market soon. So a propaganda against endosulfan through certain vested interest groups is understandable. If India bows down to the Stockholm Convention, then it could be a suicidal move against the poor farmers of this country.

Kesargod incident is an one-off case which hasn't even strong evidences against endosulfan abuse and chances are that the reports published in media or driven by NGOs are motivated by interest groups. Moreover, the way endosulfan is used in cashew forests in Kerala is against the standard operating process. Aerial spray of any pesticide over a decade could have adverse impact on the people around the locality, and this specific case maybe no different. Rather than banning the pesticide, Kerala should learn the right way of using the pesticide. It seems like bad workmen always quarrel with their tools, and this surely fits in here.

The Government of India should take notice of the strong implications due to ban of endosulfan. The immediate impact could be on the farm productivity and pricing. Already the poor people of India are reeling under extreme inflation in all these years and a step towards blanket ban of a pesticide which has no proven adverse impact on the people and environment could be a dangerous proposition for agricultural productivity and economy of this country.