ABSTRACT
Continuing from the observations made in the previous discussion on land acquisition, this last chapter marks the associations established between the concept of public purpose and the various perspectives of developmental policies. It argues that land legislations have been framed to push a monolithic idea of development that normalizes heavy corporate infliction in the economy. By reading together the concepts of public purpose, development and displacement, the chapter ascertains that they produced a strange legal situation for land and property rights – one, that is full of stark contradictions between different ideologies and consequently favours only the privileged section of the society. The chapter conducts a detailed analysis to understand displacement and the consequences it has on the structure of land tenure in general. It further discovers the extreme complexity of the process of displacement–resettlement–rehabilitation and argues that compensation is a significant, yet a meagre part of the process.
