Box 6.1: Gold rush

Malikpur village in Najafgarh district of Delhi state has a population of about 400 people. It has good loamy soil that yields two crops. It has easy motorable roads to West Delhi markets that take not more than one hour to reach. It produces potato, wheat and jowar.

Yet on 13 May 2007, the villagers were all keen to sell out their holdings. Each village home has at least one acre of cultivable land. Satbir Singh Jat of the village told one of the authors, the ‘big builders have offered us over Rs three crore for each acre’. The amount is not a fairy tale projection. Families that have moved out of the village confirmed that builders have paid them the sum.

That is a sum Satbir Singh is sure he would not be able to make in his lifetime. It therefore makes sense to sell the land and buy a plot at a cheaper rate in Rajasthan or deep inside Haryana. Nudging them along in the decision-making process is the sharply falling water table in the farms. Though next door to the capital, it has to make do with rainwater for at least one of the crops every year. Satbir's brethren have already begun making enquiries in Haryana and Rajasthan for contiguous parcels of land.

Satbir's big worry is how to invest the sum. He knows it is a big sum and is also afraid that it could become a bone of contention in his family. […]