Those affected by land takeover for the proposed Navi Mumbai airport do not expect the Centre’s amended draft of the land acquisition legislation to change things much on their core demands.
The Project Affected Persons (PAPs) stand to lose 450 hectares for the project and, in return, want 35-40 per cent returned as developed land. They say they were not ready to accept the state government’s proposal of 12.5 per cent or up to 15 per cent developed land, plus monetary compensation of Rs 10 lakh a hectare.
This comes just after Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who headed the group of ministers which suggested amendments to the core Bill, said in Navi Mumbai yesterday that the PAPs would now be entitled for compensation at four times the market rates.
R C Gharat, a Congress party leader and negotiator for the PAPs, told Business Standard: “Negotiations between us and the state government are incomplete. We have already conveyed our willingness to drop our (earlier) demand for compensation of Rs 20 crore an acre if the government accepts our plea for providing 35-40 per cent of developed land.” If the government was prepared to provide only 12.5 per cent developed land and a compensation of Rs 10 lakh a ha, the PAPs would certainly challenge this in a court of law, he said.
The Bill proposes minimum compensation at a multiple of the total of market value plus a solatium. The total minimum compensation would be at least four times the market value for land acquired in rural areas and at least two times the market value for land acquired in urban areas. Additionally, the Bill proposes a wide range of rehabilitation and resettlement entitlements to land owners and livelihood losers from the land acquirer.
Tanaji Satre, managing director of the City and Industrial Development Corporation, nodal agency for the project, said the negotiations were incomplete.
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“We will resume our talks after studying the provisions of the Bill recently approved by the Union cabinet,” he said.
Pramod Hindurao, chairman of CIDCO, said the PAP rehabilitation package was yet to be placed before their board of directors. “We will take the decision keeping the farmers’ interest in mind,” he said.
As reported by Business Standard on November 19, of the 2,020 ha required for the airport project, nearly 1,400 ha was in CIDCO’s possession, while the state government has agreed to hand over 150 ha from its possession. CIDCO needs another 450 ha of private land, for which notices have been served under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.
CIDCO has pegged the total project cost at Rs 14,500 crore, of which Rs 9,000 crore would be for phase-I. Of this, the pre-development cost is about Rs 4,000 crore — to be spent on land acquisition, rehabilitation of affected villagers and site development. CIDCO would bear the pre-development cost but it is unclear if that expense would be treated towards project equity or recovered from the company which wins the bid to construct the airport. Further, CIDCO has sought financial help from the Centre for pre-development costs, while developers are also requesting viability gap funding for the project..