Involuntary Displacement and Resettlement — Policy and ... - CEPA

those who had agreed to the LARC decision at the meeting, and eroded thepositive feelings of having participated in a consultative process.4 Issues of Equity in CompensationThe inability of statutory compensation (under section 17) to provide a ‘fair’value for land and assets acquired by the state under the LAA has given riseto widespread dissatisfaction, leading at times to court cases. Whereacquisition is for development that has no direct or immediate benefit tothose losing land and assets, the issue of equity is particularly significant.The primary objective of LARC has been to remedy this situation byincreasing the compensation to better reflect the market value and enablereplacement.On average, LARC doubled the statutory compensation entitlement in allcategories of loss such as house and land (agricultural, commercial or othertypes). The level of replacement, particularly in housing, indicates that thecompensation paid was at, or close to, the replacement value and a faircompensation for involuntary resettlement.While there is widespread acknowledgment, among APs as well as officials,that the LARC compensation was fairer than the LAA estimates, there arecertain weak elements in the design as well as the implementation,especially in terms of achieving equity between APs and types of loss.There is a discrepancy in the treatment of different types of loss. It is morefocused on facilitating replacement of home plots and housing than onagricultural land. The bulk of the allowances, e.g. resettlement allowance,utility replacement, shifting allowance, temporary rent allowance, are gearedtowards replacement of home plots and housing. In contrast, replacement ofagricultural land is facilitated only via allowances for livelihood loss andpreparing necessary documents such as title deeds. No allowances areprovided for costs incurred in looking for new agricultural land, replacing thecultivation to previous levels, etc. This could have contributed to the very lowlevel of replacement of agricultural land – particularly paddy – as againsthome plots and housing. Less than 10% of agricultural land has beenreplaced in contrast to 90% of housing as of 2006.171