Medha Patkar's alternative model of development

At a conference organized at Baawangaja in Madhya Pradesh to chalk out at an alternative model of economic development for the country, Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar combined the legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb B.R. Ambedkar to make a powerful plea for decentralization by making villages the locus of planning. Attacking land acquisition for large-scale development projects that displaced people against their consent, Patkar said, "Rather than Land Acquisition and Resettlement Acts, we want a National Developmental Planning Act that paves the way for micro-planning, making the village the focus of the planning process. Article 273 of the Constitution envisages the preparation of plans for economic development and social justice at the village-level and extends powers of taxation to the village Panchayat. It is this spirit of local self-government that needs to be taken forward," she said.

"We stand with Mahatma Gandhi when it comes to decentralization, village-level planning and economic development. However, we believe that the Ambedkarite legacy should be added to the Gandhian legacy to radically address internal hierarchies within the village community," she said.

She also said that such an approach to planning would also be more environment-friendly. "When local communities are made to feel that they have rights on their land, water, forests and other natural resources, they will be better inspired to protect them," Patkar added.

Patkar said the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007, was worse than the original colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894. "While the British Act legalised the forced acquisition of land for public interest, its 1984 amendment allowed the acquisition for companies too. The latest Bill to amend the Act allows the acquisition of 70 percent of land required by a person for purposes useful to the general public and asks the government to acquire the remaining 30 percent on his behalf. The definition of public here includes a company. This is a ploy to acquire land and hand it over to corporate houses after displacing the poor," she said.