One-time pay-off for land losers: GoM

State can acquire 30% land for pvt parties to meet contiguity norms.

The group of ministers (GoM) set up to decide a national resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) policy finalised its recommendations, which includes a one-time settlement for people impacted by industrial projects and special economic zones (SEZs) and permits states to acquire up to 30 per cent of the land for private players in certain circumstances.

The GoM was set up in May this year to re-examine the R&R policy in the wake of widespread protests by land losers, particularly for those losing land to SEZs. It is chaired by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.

"The GoM has decided in favour of a one-time settlement package for all the Project Affected Persons (PAPs) whose land would be acquired for the projects. This also rules out other periodic benefits," a GoM source told Business Standard.

The policy will be sent for approval to the cabinet, which meets on September 6 and could be announced in the current Monsoon session of Parliament, which ends on September 14. Enabling amendments to the Land Acquisition Act will follow.

The decision also rules out the possibility of profit-sharing in the form of shares of the company for which the land is acquired.

This was first introduced by the Jindal group to acquire land for an engineering project in West Bengal and had been endorsed by Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.

The latest decision shows that Finance Minister P Chidambaram's view has prevailed. Chidambaram had reportedly ruled out the possibility of extended benefits like shares for land losers, saying it would overburden companies setting up their projects.

On state acquisition of land for private parties, the GoM said the 30 per cent stipulation would be allowed provided the private player had acquired 70 per cent of the land required. Further, government intervention would be only to help private players achieve land contiguity.

This stipulation, however, marks a major relaxation on an earlier draft policy that had proposed to allow states to acquire only up to 10 per cent of the land to meet contiguity requirements.

The GoM also decided that the land owner, in most cases a farmer, would also be given a 60 per cent premium, or solatium, over and above the land value.

This marks a significant increase over the earlier suggestion of a 30 per cent solatium and was the result of a demand by S Jaipal Reddy, Minister for Urban Development.

The current policy will replace the National Policy for Resettlement and Rehabilitation of Project Affected Families, 2003, formulated by the National Democratic Alliance government.

Stating that the policy was inadequate, the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has decided to draft a new policy, which has seen numerous changes at both prime ministerial and state levels.

Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said that there would be no further consultations with the states on the policy or land acquisition.

"We have already discussed the issue with the states and if there are any further points they can be sorted out in Parliament," he said.