Land banks for industries have been built across the eastern Indian state of Odisha in an apparent effort to provide land quickly to industries and to improve the state’s rankings in the Ease of Doing Business Index. A cursory glance of GOiPLUS, the online portal that carries the database of land banks across the state, shows the land banks held by the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO). They are mostly close to water and mineral sources.
As land conflicts challenge industrial expansion in India, land banks are seen as a way to manage these conflicts. But this is done without following due process requirements laid down in laws such as the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 (LARR) and the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (FRA).
The use of land banks in India has not always been about administrative action asserting eminent domain. A report submitted to the Planning Commission by a working group headed by economist Bina Agarwal in 2011 suggested that unused land that was cultivable could be placed in a state land bank. Authorities could then distribute this land among the landless communities.
India’s NITI Aayog, the Government think-tank, has also suggested that land stuck with government agencies could be allocated for affordable housing in urban areas. But a departure in the use of state land banks from an instrument for distributive justice to one where land is speedily handed over for the industry is evident across India.
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