Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt and others (“Land Acquisition and Dispossession: Private Coal Companies in Jharkhand”, EPW, 11 February 2012), touch on several important issues, but with a sophistication which is expected from academics. The piece, however, portrays only the tip of the iceberg; the grass-roots situation is much more serious and tense. Land acquisition by privately-owned coal
mining companies has assumed very sinister proportions. This letter is to bring some more examples to the attention of EPW readers. (Letters)

Today, people are protesting against illegal and unjust land grabbing across the country, and it is clear for all to see that the process of land acquisition is unjust and driven by private interests. At this time, the UPA government is introducing a Bill that will supposedly address these issues. The government claims that the main problem is ensuring ‘fair’ compensation for land losers, though, ironically, its Bill will not even achieve this. However, the problem is far deeper, and affects far more people than landowners alone. (Joint Statement)

This vaccine policy is more about spending and coverage, than about protecting children. It is not designed to enhance national public capacities for public immunization programmes, but to justify spending public money on public private partnerships (PPPs) or privately produced vaccines in the name of protection from diseases, whose incidence figures and public health statistics are dubious and industry manufactured.

The quality of implementation of the National Rural Health Mission in a number of states has transformed the public healthcare system considerably. Learning from these improvements which have focused on the grass roots, local recruitment is the best way to forge a credible public health system that has public accountability.

The AMRI crime is an example of how public safety is being repeatedly compromised. More specifically, it demonstrated the dismal trend of healthcare services being offered by “super specialty care” in public-private partnerships, which has raised the cost of medical treatment to exorbitant levels and deprived the poor of even basic treatment.