Economic and Political Weekly

Land Acquisition and Compensation

What Really Happened in Singur?

Vol - XLVIII No. 21, May 25, 2013 | Maitreesh Ghatak, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee, and Anusha Nath

Special Articles

This paper reports results of a household survey in 12 Singur villages, six in which lands were acquired for the Tata car factory, and six neighbouring villages, with random sampling of households within each village. The results show that (a) the size of plots acquired were non-negligible; (b) the majority of those affected were marginal landowners engaged in cultivation; (c) the government's compensation offers were approximately equal to the reported market values of acquired plots on average, but the inability of the official land records to distinguish between plots of heterogeneous quality meant that a substantial fraction of farmers were under-compensated relative to market values; (d) those under-compensated were significantly more likely to refuse the compensation offers, as were those whose livelihoods were more dependent on agriculture; (e) incomes and durable consumption of affected owners and tenants grew slower between 2005 and 2010 compared with unaffected owners and tenants; (f) earnings of affected workers fell faster than unaffected workers. Therefore, land acquisition resulted in substantial economic hardship for large sections of the rural population, for many of whom compensation offered was inadequate.

The Importance of Zakia Jafri's Protest Petition

Vol - XLVIII No. 21, May 25, 2013 | Teesta Setalvad

Commentary

The protest petition filed by Zakia Jafri against the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team report, which absolved Narendra Modi of all responsibility for the 2002 killings in Gujarat, is an important step towards justice for all the victims. This article recapitulates the long and diffi cult battle for justice through the courts and exposes the complicity of the SIT in protecting Modi from his crimes.

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Web Exclusives Pakistan Election 2013: More Rejection, Less Election Humeira Iqtidar, Kamal Munir Not since the 1970 election have the people of Pakistan turned out in such great numbers to vote. Two differences are notable, however. First, while in 1970 they voted the Pakistan People’s Party to power, this time, they came out in droves... Read more	Debating DU / Web Exclusives Liberal Education: The Road Not Taken Gautam Bhan The proposed Foundation Courses promise a well rounded liberal education with enhanced employability and the ability to meet national challenges, but their rigid structure and poor content breaks this promise. Read more
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Commentary The Financial Sector in Budget 2013 M K Datar A discussion of the announcements pertaining to the financial sector in Budget 2013. Read more	Editorials Blood Garments The Bangladesh tragedy exposes the callousness of the garment business. Read more
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Vol - XLVIII No. 21
May 25, 2013

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Review of Women's Studies: May 4, 2013
This edition focuses on the relations between caste and gender and explores the intersectionalities involved. It includes articles exploring the politics of feminism and dalit activism located in urban spaces, in working class sites, through labour, “traditional” rituals, issues of honour and inter-caste marriage.

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Swadeshi in the Time of Nations
A set of five articles revisit themes from Sumit Sarkar’s book, The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal and find resonances across time and space for both the themes the book raised as well as for the politics and ideologies of the movement it studied.

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