LAND ACQUISITION IN INDIA: LEGAL ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

Introduction
Land is a free gift of the nature and it is an abundant source of formation, nourishment and
demolition for living and non-living things. It plays a significant role to progress and development
of any country. Land is such a subject of nation that shape up geographical nature, yielding quality,
intrinsic value and the extent of its territory. It is also a symbol of social status since the inception.
In the primitive society, it has played important role in the existence and survival of human beings.
Every land belongs to some owner or some authority i.e. king or any sovereign authority.
In the present context, the Land acquisition has been very serious and concerned issue in the
pre and post Indian context. It relates with political, economic, social, environmental aspects of the
nation. With media’s articulation, the issues related with land acquisition have reached to various
masses and polity. Land acquisition has become a most vexing problem for policymakers in India.
The areas like Singur, Nandigram, Kalinganagar, Jaitapur and Bhatta Parsaul have entered issues as
distressing descriptions of social conflict. The post-liberalisation economic development continues to
create a greedy desire for space to achieve the demands of industrialisation, infrastructure building,
urban expansion and resource extraction. Finding a way to balance the needs of economic growth,
equitable distribution and human rights, rescuing these complex and sometimes conflicting objectives
from the demagoguery of single issue advocates (Bardhan 2011) and political opportunists, is perhaps
the greatest challenge facing our democracy.1