In fact, in the run-up to the land acquisition, communicators were hired by the corporation to guide and counsel the farmers. “We created a communication and project monitoring office and hired 350 boys and girls who had a degree in Master of Social Work. We were clear that the hires had to be MSW students since the job involved a lot of behavioural science and the need to communicate effectively with the villagers,” says Mopalwar.

An initial dipstick survey showed 50% villagers were in favour, 30% were open to the project subject to doubts being cleared and the rest were just sceptical. “Since an overwhelming number of people were in favour, we managed to get a majority (93%) of the land by consent with compulsory acquisition making up for the remainder 7%,” reveals Mopalwar. Instances where land was acquired by compulsion include those where a single tract of land had more than one claimant, but the land extract (satbara) did not have their names. In such cases compensation was equally apportioned between the claimants. “Also, in the case of absentee landlords we had to make a compulsory award because there's nobody to give you consent,” says Mopalwar.

A short orientation course in 2004 at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which deals with civil services of the federal government, including recruitments, helped Mopalwar better understand human rights, including the affirmative action program, a detailed framework of laws and policies aimed at eliminating the effects of discrimination, covering government programs as well. “The course changed my thought process of how to look at social issues,” says Mopalwar.

In fact, the previous land act had left a bitter experience with villagers as some of their claims were pending since 1998. “From 1894 to 2013, for 119 years, we had a regime where people were expropriated as they were mere occupants, while the government was the owner. So, a lot of villagers were bitter about the previous act as they were still to be compensated,” says Mopalwar.

The expressway, named as Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg, was the first example of mass scale acquisition where 20,000 acres were acquired in a single state. “The upcoming Delhi Mumbai expressway is longer but it passes through five states. No single state has ever witnessed this scale of land aggregation. We took more than 300,000 signatures of owners and different stakeholders, including tribals and the forest department,” says Mopalwar.

Radheshyam Mopalwar

Nagpur expressway a test case of execution and compensation: Mopalwar