Activity
The Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg project is one of the key infrastructural projects in Maharashtra. The implementation of this project began in 2017 with land acquisition as one of the initial steps in the process. Being a Greenfield project, the entire land required for the project had to be acquired starting from Shivmadka in Nagpur to Wadpe in Thane district. Before acquiring the land, the land has to be measured through a process known as the Joint Measurement Survey or the JMS, a process which holds utmost importance in the process of land acquisition. The JMS also confirms the exact ownership of the land.
Objectives
A lot of opposition for the project was observed during the JMS owing to various reasons. However, the opposition could have been overturned with the right kind of awareness and communication. The Land Acquisition Act, 2013 has been one of the historical initiatives taken towards protecting the farmers’ rights, which unfortunately, most farmers were unaware of. Our main objective was to create awareness among the farmers future so as to assure them that JMS does not equate to land acquisition.
Challenges
The biggest challenge faced during the process was lack of awareness and spread of misinformation amongst the farmers and land owners. The process of JMS includes marking of land to understand which part of land has to be acquired for the project and who the owner of the land is. The landowners had a misconception that if their land is marked it will be forcefully acquired. Under the influence of the local leaders, farmers’ activists and other leaders, the farmers were strongly against JMS with the fear that if their land is measured, it will be acquired leaving them landless and without any source of income. Due to this, the JMS process was even halted in a few areas. This posed a great hindrance for the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, the implementing agency of the project.
One of the main reasons for this belief was their previous experiences regarding land acquisition. Before the introduction of The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (also Land Acquisition Act, 2013), land required for such projects was acquired forcibly. This had led to a negative perception among the farmers regarding the entire concept of land acquisition.
Strategy
Inter-personal communication with the concerned parties and generating positivity through media were the key strategies adopted during this process. Aurangabad was identified as one of the important districts for the project as maximum land had to be acquired from Aurangabad and rest of Marathwada. However, Aurangabad was also the district from which maximum opposition was observed. It was therefore advised to the highest project authority, the VCMD of MSRDC Mr. Radheshyam Mopalwar in this case, to meet with the editors/senior Journalists of mainline newspapers in Aurangabad and explain to them the hows and whys of the entire process. The objective was to convey the detailed official process of the land acquisition and clearing out the misconceptions through credible channels of communication. Within a day, VCMD decided to trvale to Aurangabad and meet with the editors and other representatives from mainline media houses and interact personally with them. So, within the shortest available time, the meeting was arranged, the media was invited and even the VCMD was briefed with the exact message that had to conveyed. Mainline newspapers like Divya Marathi exactly captured the crux of the matter and published a story conveying the entire issue with utmost clarity and transparency.
Fortunately, one of the journalists present at the meet also was one of the land owners whose land had to be acquired. Through direct communications, his doubts were resolved, thus creating a major influencer in favour of the project.
All the media men attended the VCMD’s meet in which he had explained clearly that JMS does not mean land acquisition and the farmers required to co-operate the concerned authorities in the process. All the publications reported VCMD’s thoughts next day in their publications.
This strategy made the entire process easier by atleast 50% as the communication was done directly from the project spokesperson to the targeted audience.
The JMS in Aurangabad and neighbouring Jalna went on smoothly afterwords.
Following are a few important news clips obtained after the VCMD’s visit to Aurangabad:
Divya Marathi, Aurangabad & Jalna:
Loksatta, Aurangabad & Jalna:
Sakal, Aurangabad & Jalna:
Dainik Bhaskar, Aurangabad & Jalna:
