The Bhangar violence in West Bengal recalls yet again the intensity of conflicts over the acquisition of land for infrastructure projects. But if the 2013 law was enacted to comprehensively address opposition to land acquisition, why do governments still get land acquisition wrong? Infrastructure projects are initiated for the “greater common good”, but the people dispossessed by them of their land, livelihood, and environment rarely benefit from all their goodness. The outsider trope is particularly irrelevant when it applies to citizens of this country, but remains salient in state attempts to delegitimise agitations against land acquisition. Existing agrarian and local infrastructure is devalued, rendered backward, and considered in need of improvement for greater economic growth to accrue.

Source: The Hindu February 01, 2017 00:32 UTC