The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011, passed by the Lok Sabha on Thursday, has faced criticism not only from the industry but also from civil society activists.

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The National Alliance for People’s Movements, a platform of a host of NGOs working on various rights issues, has said it “welcomes the introduction of a comprehensive bill and recognition of resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) as right but is disappointed at the neglect of ground realities and legitimacy of acquisition for 'private profit' in the name of public purpose”.

This brazen push for land acquisition for private companies will threaten food security and livelihood of millions, it said in a press statement signed by Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and others.

“For decades people's movements have been struggling against the forced land acquisition, without any recourse to satisfactory R&R. Today, in an atmosphere, where everything from roads, hospital to tourism, mining, electricity developed by public or private corporations, is considered as public good, we feel that Bill will continue to betray the faith of people in development process. Since 1947, millions of hectares of land have been acquired in the name of development, displacing nearly 100 million people and leaving them to fend for themselves.”

Though the attempt to repeal the original act of 1894 was initiated in the context of the killings and land conflict in Nandigram and Singur, today the whole debate is centred only on the growth and industrialisation, NAPM noted. “Political and elite class of this country is driving this hype at the cost of alienating large section of population, who will only have the option to resist and challenge forced acquisition of their land and natural resources by corporations in name of development and growth.”

While NAPM welcomed some provisions like social impact assessment and concurrent environmental impact assessment, it is concerned that “historical justice has not been done”.

The signatories includes Dr. Sunilam, Aradhna Bhargava, Prafulla Samantara, Gautam Bandopadhyay, Ulka Mahajan, Suniti SR, Prasad Bagwe,  Gabriel Dietrich, Geetha Ramakrishnan,  Rajendra Ravi, Anita Kapoor,  Akhil Gogoi, Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey,  Sister Celia,  Sumit Wanjale, Madhuri Shivkar, Simpreet Singh,  Dr. Rupesh Verma,  Manish Gupta,  Vimal Bhai, Vilas Bhongade,  Ramashray Singh, and Anand Mazhgaonkar.

NAPM's detailed note on concerns: read more here.