Thiruvananthapuram: In a sharply worded editorial titled "Don’t Sow Land Only to Reap a Sting", Malayalam daily Deepika has delivered a scathing critique of the state’s development policies that sacrifice the lives and dignity of ordinary citizens. The article laments how ancestral land is being taken from people in the name of progress, only to leave them neglected, uncompensated, and stripped of their livelihood.

The editorial opens by challenging the commodification of land in modern development discourse. For many, especially in agrarian communities, land is not just an asset it is identity, tradition, and survival. Yet, time and again, landowners are asked to surrender their soil for highways, rail projects, ports, and infrastructure expansions. What follows is often a story of betrayal: the same people who give up their land for the greater good are left empty-handed and voiceless in the aftermath.

The article refers to judicial principles laid down by the Supreme Court of India, which state that only those who lose their homes or sources of income due to land acquisition should be entitled to rehabilitation. However, the editorial questions the ethics behind this limited scope. By narrowly defining eligibility, the law allows many genuine victims to fall through the cracks. Entire families displaced by development projects are denied resettlement simply because they didn’t lose a house on paper though they lost everything in practice.

Deepika’s editorial brings to light numerous examples from Kerala’s recent development history. Families around the Vallarpadam terminal, Vizhinjam port, and the K-Rail semi-high-speed rail corridor were forced to leave their lands, often with little to no compensation. Some received vague promises of housing; others were given title deeds to undeveloped plots far from their original communities. The social disintegration caused by these displacements has yet to be addressed, even as construction progresses rapidly.

Resettlement packages, when offered, have often been based on models imported from foreign contexts, such as Malaysia’s housing colonies. These may look functional on the outside, but fail to meet the local needs of displaced communities. Fishermen moved to inland colonies are unable to reach the coast. Farmers relocated to urban flats have no space to cultivate. Without proper planning and context-specific solutions, these efforts do more harm than good.

The editorial points to a crucial policy change by the Haryana High Court, which reversed the 1992 government guideline that guaranteed both compensation and land for the displaced. The court’s new interpretation of the 2016 Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act limited rehabilitation to only those who could prove direct loss of shelter or livelihood. While legally sound, this shift, the editorial warns, has been used as a pretext by governments to wash their hands of responsibility, ignoring the broader socio-economic impact of displacement.

The core message of the editorial is unambiguous: development without justice is exploitation. When governments and corporations seize land in the name of public interest but fail to uphold the dignity and rights of those affected, they plant the seeds of long-term social resentment. The state, which should serve as a guardian of the people, instead becomes a machinery of coercion.

Deepika urges policymakers to move beyond legal technicalities and embrace a human-centered approach. Displacement should not be treated as a mere administrative side-effect. Rather, those who give up their land for national progress should be honored, not impoverished. Adequate compensation, livelihood assurance, community rehabilitation, and emotional security must be guaranteed as part of any development package.

As Kerala continues to expand its infrastructure footprint, the editorial offers a timely reminder: true progress lies not in concrete structures but in just policies. If the path to development is littered with broken promises and uprooted lives, it is a path that ultimately leads to social erosion not empowerment.

The question that must echo through every boardroom and cabinet meeting is this: are we building a better future, or merely burying the past beneath it.