New land battles highlight India's woes

Bhatta (Uttar Pradesh), India (CNN) -- Soot covers the ceiling, fixtures dangle out of the walls and fan blades, a wrecked bike and broken furniture are strewn across the floor of her dark small home.

With her face covered for fear of police backlash, Poonam recounts on camera how her house in this dusty Bhatta village of northern India was allegedly targeted by a special force dealing with a recent fierce conflict over land.

The events unfolded on May 7 when a simmering dispute over land acquisition for a development project boiled over into pitched battles between Uttar Pradesh state's dreaded provincial armed constabulary (PAC) and farmers seeking greater compensation for their properties.

At the heart of the clashes -- one in a series that India has been facing over years as it strives to build much-needed infrastructure -- is the nation's century-old law that empowers state governments to buy land on behalf of private developers from impoverished farmers at below-market prices.

The deadly confrontation in Bhatta, which left at least four people killed and several others injured -- centered around a project along a planned superhighway to India's most-popular tourist destination, the Taj Mahal.

"The PAC barged into my locked house, ransacked it and set it on fire," alleged homemaker Poonam, who uses one name.

Accusations of police excesses in the state's iron-fisted response to violent protests echo in Bhatta.

Sitting on his cot, a 72-year-old villager, Mukut Lal Sharma, shows a bruise on his leg that he says he suffered when armed forces raided his home and beat him up the day clashes erupted.

Sharma says he didn't participate in any demonstration, but feels he too has been shortchanged for his land acquired by the state authorities. "We certainly want the government to pay us more. The government is selling it to developers at much higher prices," he says.

Authorities in Uttar Pradesh insist they are inquiring into allegations of police excesses, but claim farmers have been exploited by outside forces.

"There are certain anti-social elements who are trying to... take benefits from private parties, from some landlords and they have their own grey motives. And it is they who collected the villagers, motivated them and they tried to gain mileage from it," said Jyoti Narayan, the state's senior superintendent of police.

Nonetheless, the issue of land acquisition for industrial and development programs reverberates through different parts of India.

Mega projects across a variety of sectors have been held up for years because of stiff opposition from land-owners, farmers and tribal communities.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce (ASSOCHAM), a leading industry body, has suggested direct interactions between investors and land-owners are key to a successful procurement system.

"The ingredients of a successful land acquisition experience are: asking for less fertile land, equitable benefit-sharing, direct negotiations with stakeholders, avoid alignments with political forces and rent-seeking agents, and maintaining direct communication channels. Government acting as a mere facilitator in the land acquisition process and political parties not adopting antidevelopment stances are also found playing critical role in land acquisition," says ASSOCHAM in a note.

Indian policy-makers have been trying to replace the nation's 1894 land acquisition act with fresh legislation since 2007 as the country plans a trillion-dollar spending in the current decade to overhaul infrastructure.

And businesses caution that time lost in reforming old laws are a major bottleneck to growth.

"I personally feel the nation will grow much faster provided the pace of progress about land is sorted out," said industrialist Lalit Khaitan. "Certainly we cannot grow... until the industries are put; industries cannot be put unless the lands are available. So, it's kind of a chicken and the egg story," he warned.