With the precision of a director's cut, Mrs Gandhi has swung her attention to farmers whose lands have been acquired by the government or private companies for big-ticket infrastructure projects such as SEZs, integrated townships and other industrial corridors. A senior Congress leader close to Mrs Gandhi talks about avenues being explored to ensure that farmers who have to give up their land are made stakeholders in such projects. "One model under consideration is for the developer to return eight to 10 per cent of the land back to the farmers once the project is complete. Land in peripheral areas of the projects can be earmarked for this. This will ensure that the contiguity of the project is not hampered. This is in sync with the party's philosophy of inclusive growth,' the Congress leader said. Getting land back will be in addition to the existing benefits such as resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R). A bonanza for farmers, the move will spell increased cost to developers. "Once a project is completed, the cost of land often goes up five to six times. The benefits to the land seller go up,' said Jayant Varma, former executive director of Knight Frank India. Take, for instance, Reliance Industries' special economic zone at Jhajjar, Haryana. Farmers are selling land to the company at about Rs 20 lakhs per acre. Assuming a farmer has sold 10 acres to the company, he will get about one acre back, once the SEZ is up and running in three to four years' time. By selling that one acre the farmer could make another Rs 1 crore. The initiative came first from the private sector and the Congress is now taking the cue. Farmers selling land to Mukesh Ambani's big Navi Mumbai SEZ have been assured that they would get back 12 per cent of the land once the project is complete. Mukesh Ambani's close associate, Anand Jain, gave this assurance last year in a presentation to Union minister Pranab Mukherjee, who also heads the group of ministers on SEZs. A similar proposal was advocated by the commerce and rural development ministries, but this was ultimately dropped. The existing benefits include resettlement land in lieu of land sold to a project, employment in the project for at least one person from each family, education scholarships to eligible persons in that family, housing and other benefits, preference to affected persons in allotment of contracts and other economic opportunities in or around the project site, and temporary employment in the construction of the project. But there is a catch. Land being a state subject, the government at the Centre cannot force the states to abide by the policy fully. But a beginning is likely to be made in states ruled by the Congress