Title: When Development Brings Loss
(A Kerala village’s struggle against land acquisition
highlights the larger debate on striking the right balance)
ü In
the village of Keezhattur in Kerala’s Kannur district, a section of farmers is holding
out against the announced, but yet to be implemented, acquisition of
their farm land.
ü Long-cultivated
farmland is to be layered over with concrete to construct a
motorable road.
ü The
farmers speak not only of the economic loss that the acquisition
means to them but their opposition to the loss of habitat, water
sources and other natural capital.
ü The
present State government has not shown itself to be sympathetic to those
who wish to hold out. It has not even publicly asked that peace be
maintained, leave alone restrain its cadres on the ground.
ü It
was observed at Nandigram, West Bengal in 2007 when the government of Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee had tried to acquire farm land to be handed over to an
Indonesian chemical firm.
When alternatives exist
ü Is
it absAolutely necessary to build a bypass through the paddy
fields of Keezhattur? By at least one account it is not.
ü The
Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad has presented to the Kerala government
an alternative.
ü This
involves building an elevated expressway that would leave the paddy
fields of Keezhattur undamaged. The government must treat this proposal with seriousness.
ü The
agitating farmers have categorically stated that they are not against roads,
only that they wish to avoid to the destruction of not just cropland but
an entire ecosystem that encompasses the Western Ghats, the hillocks and
food-producing wetlands.
ü They
have also stated a moral responsibility to future generations.
ü The
paddy fields of Keezhattur are the commonwealth of the people of India to be
preserved as a source of food, for which by the way a road is not a
substitute.
Conclusion
Everything — economics, natural conservation and concern for
food production in a State where paddy cultivation could become extinct, if
current trends continue — points to the need for statesmanship on the part of
Mr. Vijayan. He could listen to his party members and, wielding
state power, win the battle against an unarmed group of agitators
or he could hear the birds of the field at Keezhattur and win the hearts and
minds of his people.
Vocabulary:
- Hold out (phrasal verb) = Resist (प्रतिरोध करना)
- Assault (noun) = A physical attack (हमला)
- Outset (noun) = The start or begin (शुरू)
- Abet (verb) = Encourage to do something wrong (उकसाना)
- Uncontemplated (adj) = Extempore (अचिंतित)
- Goon (noun) = A foolish or eccentric person (घृणास्पद आदमी)
- Restrain (verb) = Prevent or stop (नियंत्रित करना)
- Cadres (noun) = A group of activists in a communist organisation (कार्यकर्ताओं)
- Deem (verb) = Regard or consider in a specific way (समझना)
- Insistence (noun) = Demand, instruction, request (आग्रह)
- Fragile (adj) = Brittle (नाज़ुक)
- Reckon (verb) = Establish by calculation (संगणित)
- Substitute (noun) = Replacement (विकल्प)
- Aloof (adj) = Not friendly or forthcoming (पृथक)
