Globally indigenous communities face increased vulnerability, and the threat of land grabbing for economic exploitation. This fear is looming large in Meghalaya with the introduction of the Meghalaya State Investment Promotion and Facilitation (MSIPF) Act that led to the establishment of the Investment Meghalaya Authority (IMA) in place of the 29 year old current Single Window Agency. It promises to enhance the ease of doing business in the State and promote growth and create employment opportunities for the local youth.
The IMA has been created as a single nodal authority for investment promotion and facilitation as recommended by the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (MDONER). The initiative is also in accordance with the mandate of the MSIPF Act, 2024, which was passed and approved by the State Assembly in March 2024.
The agency can create land banks to then further lease out to investors. This has become the centre of intense debate that the amendment would undermine the Meghalaya Land Transfer Act for the sake of private investments. With this, the government had to decide on removing para 34 of the Act so that the Land Transfer Act is not diluted. Besides, it also decided to add one more paragraph under paragraph 13 of the Act empowering district councils to issue permission to investors whenever it is required.
This decision failed to pacify the people as opposition to creation of land banks by the IMA has emerged with fears of past pangs experienced at the hands of companies responsible for environmental degradation and the exploitation of natural resources.
The IMA is not seen as a way to promote growth for Meghalaya but a way to give preference to private investors at the cost of land rights of the local people. If the government has the intention to support and assist communities under a systematic approach it will specify how the agency will create these land banks without buying them for investors and how the district councils who have a say in matters of land and land ownership will be taken on board as part of the IMA.
Notwithstanding that outside companies cannot buy land in Meghalaya and that the IMA will hand over land on lease after creating those banks, the doubling of the lease period available to 60 years is almost as good as selling it. The government has defended this increase saying that certain large-scale development work needs longer leases to make the projects worthwhile for the private companies.
While this may be true, the government has not done enough to get its message across and combat the naysayers. Time and again governments in Meghalaya have to backtrack, not always because their ideas are bad but because they ignore the need to get on top of the narrative and explain to the people clearly how they will benefit from them.
