The Hindu

Mangalore, Nov 14: Farmers are up in arms over the price at which their land is being acquired for the Rs 35,000-crore Mangalore Special Economic Zone project.

The authorities have fixed Rs 8 lakh per acre of dry land and Rs. 8.5 lakh per acre of wetland. As many as eight villages and 2,035 acres of land on the outskirts of Mangalore have been notified for the project.

"We are paying four times the market value of the land we are acquiring for the Mangalore Special Economic Zone," said A.G. Pai, Chief Operating Officer of Mangalore SEZ Limited.

This means that the market price of the land, according to the estimates of MSEZ Limited, is only about Rs. 2 lakh per acre in the villages of Bala, Thokkur, Kalavaru, Bajpe, Permude, Thenka Yekkaru, Delanthabettu and Kuthethur.

However, farmers, who are agitating against the land acquisition in these villages, say that this is not true. The farmers contend that the actual market value of land is more than the price being offered.

Undervalued

Gregory Patrao, whose farm in Kalavaru village has been notified for the project, produced documents to substantiate his claims that the land has been undervalued. The documents pertain to a couple of land deals that were struck three months before the July 2006 meeting between the district revenue officials and farmers from four villages notified for the project.

The two documents put the sale value of land at Rs. 15 lakh per acre, he said.

"Going by that we should get 'Rs. 40 lakh' or 'Rs. 60 lakh' for an acre?" says Mr. Patrao.

This is the second time his land has been notified for acquisition. It was first notified in 1984 for Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemical Limited (MRPL). His father, before him, died fighting against the acquisition and Mr. Patrao has opposed the new notification.

Mr. Pai said, "The district administration fixes the price by taking the average price of land over a period of three years into consideration. It is a scientific method and not an arbitrary decision."

"Land was being bought and sold here for more than Rs. 10 lakh an acre almost five years before the notification. I have the documents to prove it. What nobody realises is that this is prime agricultural land," says Mr. Patrao.
Escalated figures

"After accounting for the horticultural plantations, trees, and buildings within the property, the package which MSEZ intends paying comes to around Rs. 23 lakh an acre," Mr Pai says.

But the villagers have different view of this. They refer to a public meeting at the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry with Mr. Pai.

The latter reportedly stated that Rs. 23 lakh was the total amount the company was going to spend to procure land and carry out development works; this is not the amount due to farmers as compensation.

But Mr. Pai said that he was wrongly quoted and maintained that Rs. 23 lakh per acre is reaching the people whose lands are being acquired.
Different pricing

There is also uncertainty about how the differential pricing for wetlands and dry land has been arrived at. Mr. Patrao says, "The tax levied by the Revenue Department for wetlands is about 1.7 times that for dry land."

Going by that, the price fixed for wetlands should also be 1.7 times that for dry lands. "If dry land is valued at Rs. 8 lakh then wetland should be valued at Rs. 13,60,000 and not Rs. 8.5 lakh," says Mr. Patrao.
What the Act says

Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board Act 1966 stipulates that a public meeting has to be held to negotiate the acquisition price with all the farmers concerned. The July 2006 meeting was organised for the same purpose. The notice to attend this meeting was issued to farmers from only five of the eight notified villages — Bala, Thokkur, Kalavaru, Bajpe and a part of Permude.

The area owned by the farmers who attended this meeting was 278 acres out of the 2,035 acres which are now notified. The reason is that the rest of the villages had not yet been notified for acquisition in July 2006.

"I was not consulted before the price was fixed. All the amounts, being offered as compensation across the board, were arrived at in that meeting (July 2006). It is a breach of procedure, it is illegal," says Bhaskar Kulal, a small farmer from Thenka Yekkaru.

It was a publicly announced meeting and held at the town hall. The villagers were represented by Samyukta Hitarakshana Samiti (SHS).

However, the farmers from the villages that came under the second notification claim that the samiti does not represent them.

On the other hand, despite the growing voices of dissent there are farmers like Rosario Menezez who are desperate to dispose of his land. Menezez says, "I have had enough of farming. My family and I just want to get out of here and start a new life." Mr. Menezez has seven acres of land in Permude village.