Policy matters

Sir ? The Centre?s decision to bring out a law that allows tribals to vote on their rehabilitation packages is a positive step (?Law to tackle land unrest?, March 29). Coming in the wake of the killing of tribals in Kalinganagar, Orissa, and the more recent violence in Gangavaram, Andhra Pradesh, the government seems to be desperate to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. The new law is expected to peacefully mediate matters with tribals and other communities who stand in the way of ?progress?. The bill which proposes to give ?land for land?, even agricultural land, instead of mere monetary compensation or jobs in modernized plants is laudable as it stands. The move could take the sting out of the Maoist programme which often uses the rehabilitation cause to persuade dissatisfied tribals to join their groups. This may be the first step towards successfully countering the Maoist aggression.

Yours faithfully,
Abhishek Law, Calcutta

Sir ? The new law being considered to quell the violence of communities displaced by the country?s march towards development is too good to be true. For one, there is little point in giving farmlands to fishing communities. A major problem in rehabilitating the tsunami-affected and tsunami-endangered population has been assuring them access to the sea while shifting them away from the land they are living in. In the case of Gangavaram the problem is the same. In fact, it is worse, because the land is being taken away by the government for an activity that is unlikely to immediately benefit the fishing community of the region.

There are other problems as well. Since the matter is on the concurrent list, the rehabilitation policy will vary from one state to another and depend on the dispensation in power. If the political affiliation of the displaced community happens to be different, it might be denied proper compensation. Any rehabilitation package again will depend on how well local political alignments work out for the people being moved out. About 50 per cent of a gram sabha has to agree to a rehabilitation package. Which is fair enough, but there are also chances that individual members can be bought by vested interests to agree or disagree on a policy.

All of this indicates that the government?s intentions may be noble, but there is still no coherent thought being given to the problem.

Yours faithfully,
J. Acharya, Calcutta

Sir ? Rs 25,000 in addition to the government?s offer of Rs 25,000 per family to the 3,600 families of fishermen in the Gangavaram port area of Visakhapatnam would have cost the Andhra Pradesh government Rs 9 crore only. For a project that costs thousands of crores of rupees, this would have been peanuts. Besides, Rs 25,000 for a family comes to around Rs 5,000 per head. Is it not a pittance for families living in the place for decades? But for the government, old habits die hard. Families have to sit on hunger strike for months, get killed, lathicharged, the project delayed and work stalled till the government is forced to raise the compensation package.

Yours faithfully,
Govind Das Dujari, Calcutta

Unsafe terrain

Sir ? It is not understood why the government of India is wasting taxpayers? money by posting a useless band to guard India?s borders with Bangladesh (?Bangla bullets kill Indians?, March 29). Is the Border Security Force there to give us a sense of security? Perhaps not. For otherwise, the Bangladesh Rifles would not have killed Indian citizens with impugnity and managed to get away each time. The BDR has often stopped the work of fencing the border with threats, killed poor Indian workers engaged in construction jobs like building roads to get its way. This time the killings followed despite the BSF having reassured the workers.

Even earlier, BSF jawans have been kidnapped by the BDR, tortured and killed inhumanly. What did the BSF do in retaliation? It held flag meetings with its counterpart, took the bodies back, wrapped them up in the national flag, sounded the last post and cremated them with full honours. The flag meeting was held in the present instance also. But how will this help the poor families of the dead? Perhaps the BSF should be withdrawn and ordinary constables posted to do the job more efficiently at a lesser cost.

Yours faithfully,
S.B. Gupta, Calcutta

Sir ? In ?Bangladeshis? (March 26), a BSF inspector-general, Somesh Goyal, is reported to have said that over 10,000 Bangladeshis, who came to India last year, are yet to return despite their visas having expired. I live in Kuwait, which has a substantial Bangladeshi population, a majority of whom are contract labourers. Most of those I have talked to have one or more members of their family permanently living in West Bengal, a number of them concentrated in and around Calcutta. The problem of illegal aliens is much bigger than what the public in India think. Bangladesh, meanwhile, continues to be in a state of denial about it. But even if this policy is beneficial to some political parties, it is actually a time bomb on a short fuse. The seeds of terrorism have already been planted in Bengal. Whatever hope the state has of development will disappear if the poverty-stricken are continuously imported from beyond the borders.

Yours faithfully,
Bhaskar Majumdar, Kuwait