On 29-Jun-06, at 3:31 AM, sastry wrote:
1)result No 1: residents win a democratic battle against government
Nothing "democratic" about this - it's just individual property
rights being
respected.
But, as the right to property is not a fundamental right in India (i.e.
"democracy" trumps individual rights) the government can, legally,
take whatever private land it wants, and doesn't need to even pay
just compensation at prevailing market rates for property seized.
This has been the subject of numerous Supreme Court cases, which led
to private property rights being removed from the list of fundamental
rights in the constitution, as in India the will of the mob
("democracy")
is (by means of numerous constitutional provisions such as the supremacy
of the legislative branch over the judiciary) considered superior to
individual
rights.
2)result No 2: Metro rail project will be delayed even futher
leading to more
congestion and demad could exceed capacity when it is done.
If roads and other infrastructure were privately owned too, the
concerned
companies would 1) definitely have full details about their properties,
2) be able to work out mutually beneficial agreements between themselves
without much trouble or unnecessary delay, and 3) have to pay full
market
rates (or even higher than market rates) to individuals whose
property they
desired to acquire for their projects.
#!
