Editorial
The phenomenal expropriation
Attitude of resignation regrettable
This country has been no stranger to illegal and forcible acquisition of land, particularly forest property, since a long time back. But the scourge of expropriation of public land has been the most pronounced in recent years. The parliamentary committee on environment and forest ministry has learnt from an appraisal report submitted by the forest department that as much as 1.88 lakh acre of forest land has been gobbled up by predators in human form, of which only 9,288 acre could be recovered todate. We are in full agreement with the chairman of the committee that this is far from satisfactory.A senior official of the forest department has stated that some of the large business houses are involved in this heinous grabbing spree along with what they call "people who are influential". Apparently, his observations almost echoed a remark made by none other than the minister of forests himself. In nearly all cases, there is an involvement of influential and powerful people. Our question is: how powerful and influential are these grabbers, more powerful than the administration itself? If the answer is yes, if the custodians of public property abdicate before the thugs and thereby prove less powerful than the predators, then what remains of their raison d'être? It is our observation that there is an unmistakable pattern to all kinds of land grabbing, be it in urban areas or rural, whether it's encroachment of river banks or filling up of water bodies for building housing complexes or setting up commercial structures. According to the officials of the department concerned, whenever a move is made to free land from a grabber, the latter would promptly produce false documents followed by court injunctions. So, there is nexus or collusion between fake stakeholders without breaking which no headway can be made in curbing land grabbing. We suggest a two-pronged measure to solve the huge problem of expropriation in a land-short country: the short term one aimed at vastly improving the rate of recovery of the already grabbed land and the longer-term one designed to prevent any further grabbing of land. To this end, the government should set up a high-powered committee to oversee the current recovery operations and intervene where necessary to make these yield results. For a long term success, the district forest offices need to be further empowered and equipped. Let us not forget, what is at stake is the future of millions of our compatriots for decades to come.
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