A group of villagers, led by an activist (typically hero), fight against a company(villain) which wants to grab their lands. Rest of the movie revolves around how the hero fights for the people, makes them win the case against acquiring their lands. This is a typical telugu movie plot specifically targeting mass audience.
The agitations against land acquisition which creates chaos in lives of a lot of people, is unquestionably working for Tollywood. Khaidi 150 is the one to jump on the bandwagon this time. Another blockbuster last year Saarinodu from Allu Arjun was all about land acquisition. It doesn’t stop there – Mahesh Babu in Khaleja, Jr NTR in Ramayya Vasthavayya, Ram Charan in Racha, Ravi teja in Kick2, and this list is never ending
The law in movies is that private industries are always wrong and government officials have to be corrupt. The last straw is the death of the villain in the climax. May be the UPA government took this quiet seriously in 2013 and modified a century old land acquisition act. Land acquisition laws are in place in many countries because in many situations public purpose trumps the private right to retain a specific property. Without the government’s intervention if a private person tries to acquire the land, thanks to all the movies we know what happens to the company.
In 2013 land acquisition act, the government can acquire property for private companies if the project serves significant public purpose. As the movies portray that government is at the behest of the corporates, ironically the corporates are at the behest of the government. The movies are barking up the wrong tree.
Typically, consent of 80% of owners if land is for private projects and 70% if land is for PPP projects is required. If land is for the government’s hold, use and control no consent is required.
Consider an example, if 60% of the population is ready to sell their land and other chunk doesn’t want to, it is this 20% who are ideally the rebels and always win in our movies. The government is generally caught between two stools, people or industrialization. The court stays and the compensation debates are never ending.
Don’t count your chickens yet, the Telangana government went a step ahead and modified its land acquisition law to avoid this conflict.
In almost all of the movies, the private owners tend to acquire it for personal benefit. They never show the large scale benefit of setting up an industry. Every cloud has a silver lining. Likewise, the movie which justified construction of dam was Rajnikanth’s Linga and everybody knows the fate of the movie.
In India, consent has been debated while in other countries “what constitutes public purpose” and the compensation is debated. As long as the purpose is justifiable and compensation is fair, the right to take private property showcases the sovereignty of the state.
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