Steam Center Blog

Photo of Himalayan foot hills by Ashok Malhotra   C urrently in India, a heated debate is taking place on the subject of Land acquisition by government. This debate takes place with a history and background in which ever since colonial times, land has been acquired in India by government, not always in fair and just manner i.e. inadequate compensations were paid for the acquisition or land was acquired not so much for public good as for private benefit without paying a just compensation to the land owner. Therefore, there are strong emotional under currents to the debate, some of which were reflected in an earlier note in this blog here . At the heart of the debate are two opposing needs, F irst is the right of a private owner to hold on to his land and use it in any legally permissible manner and have the assurance that it shall not be taken away from him without his consent by any private or public entity. s econd is the opposing need of governments to ac...

H umans through history have been governed by different types of governments ranging from monarchies, dictatorships to communist one party rule and democracies. However, in all forms of governments, the rights of both citizens and those who govern have not been absolute. Thus no citizen has had absolute right anywhere to injure or kill other members of society and nearly all types of governments, except some short lived despotic ones, have not had the right to imprison or enslave citizens without a due process of law. There have been other limitations on governments too, for example a government of whatever form may not take away the children of citizens, the modesty of its women or their private property except within well defined exceptions. For example, if a parent is seen to be cruel in an extreme way, a child may be taken away; when a piece of land is required for an urgent public purpose such as defense of the country or building an essential road, land may be acquired. ...