land acquisition/sez & displacement – 2011 - Indian Social Institute

suggestions have been received for tightening the definition of public purpose to remove scope of itsmisuse. He said "land for railways, highways, ports, power and irrigation purposes for use by governmentor public sector companies" has been included in the definition of public purpose. The minister said theconsent of at least 80 percent of project-affected people is needed if land is acquired in public interest bygovernment where the benefits largely accrue to the general public or is acquired by the government orpublic sector companies for infrastructure or urbanisation projects. Consent of at least 80 percent ofproject affected people is also needed if land is acquired in public interest for private companies forproduction of goods for provision of public services. Ramesh said the bill will apply to all cases of landacquisition where before the date of commencement of the act, "the award has not been made under theLand Acquisition Act, 1894, or, possession of land has not been taken regardless of whether award hasbeen made or not". He said special benefits under rehabilitation and resettlement available to theScheduled Tribes have been extended to the Scheduled Castes. A modification has also been made inrehabilitation and resettlement provisions. These provisions now become applicable if the land purchasedis 100 acres in rural areas and 50 acres in urban areas. The draft bill said these would be applicable ifland acquired exceeds 100 acres. Ramesh said the sum to be paid by the land acquirer if he is not able toprovide employment has been increased from Rs.2 lakh to Rs.5 lakh. The minister said he had spoken toleaders of political parties and there was almost unanimous support for the bill. He said extensiveconsultations had been held with National Alliance for People's Movements and he had gotrepresentation from CII and FICCI. He said the clause to give retrospective effect to the bill was inspiredby demands from farmers of Uttar Pradesh. The farmers in the state, who had been agitating against theland acquisition policy of Mayawati government, had met the minister earlier this month with theirdemands. The minister said states such as Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal and Kerala had reservationsover the provision in the draft bill which prohibits acquisition of multi-crop irrigated land. "They feel it canbe a restrictive clause. We may improve it," he said. He said the purpose of the bill was to allow for landto be acquired in a transparent manner. (New Kerala 20/8/11)Land Bill to benefit cos building townships & urban projects (4)New Delhi: The government has redefined public purpose in the new Land Acquisition Bill to allowcompanies developing townships and urban projects to be also included in the definition. However, it hasadded a rider that such urban projects should be meant for the purpose of production of goods for publicor providing public services. This keeps open the window for real estate companies to approach the stateor the central government to help them in acquiring land. The changes also take into account the hugerequirement that will be thrown up by the government-owned Delhi Mumbai Corridor IndustrialDevelopment Corporation to acquire land. The changes are part of the amendments to the proposedNational Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011. But for any project even whencategorised for ‘public purpose’ will only go through if 80% of the families affected by the projects acceptthe change in land use. The earlier version of the Bill did not elaborate the meaning of 'public purpose'used for land acquisition. The changes by Jairam Ramesh incorporates the suggestions made by industrybodies CII and FICCI, state governments and civil society organisations. It was put up for responses bythe rural development ministry last month. The key public purpose as per the new Bill would also includeprojects supported by government and public sector companies in the areas of railways, highways, ports,power and irrigation purpose. “The changes have been incorporated in the Bill after getting approval fromthe law ministry and has been sent for inter-ministerial consultation,” Ramesh said on Friday. He said theBill could be introduced in the current season of Parliament. The Bill has also hiked the compensationgiven to project affected people from R2 lakh to R5 lakh when the industry is unable to provideemployment to concerned persons. On the issue of timeline for implementation of the new act whichwould supersede the existing 18 laws such highways, SEZs, defence, railways etc, the new version of Billhas stated that it would be implemented with retrospective effect provided 'the award for land acquired isnot completed or possession of land has not been taken under the existing Land Acqusition Act, 1894'.The modified version of the Bill also made provision of five acre of alternate land to be given to ScheduleCastes & Schedule Tribes 'regardless of loss of land.' And special benetif of Resettlement andRehabilitation would be given to SCs along with STs. While ruling out acquisition of multi-cropped andirrigated land, the bill has allowed private sector companies to buy land directly from farmers and owners.“The Bill does not prohibit private players purchasing land, this law is for land acquisition,” Rameshsaid…. (The Financial Express 20/8/11)