The process of land acquisition becoming more sensitive to the grievances of the owner earned a better prospect on Wednesday as a Bill was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, setting a base level for compensation to even its dependents.
The Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, now pending passage in the Lok Sabha, suggests that industry is free to acquire land in cases where the matter pertains to below 50 acres in urban areas and 100 acres in rural areas, but that it would require mutual negotiation with the farmers/landowners to arrive at a price. In cases above 50 and 100 acres, industry will be subject to rigorous compensation levels. States are free to offer more compensation; but they cannot go below the level proposed under the Bill.
Striking a balance between those who need land – like the state itself, industry and other private entities – and those who are ready to sell it, the bill provides for compensation of land owners at the rate of four times the market value of a given piece of land whether it is for public or private purpose in rural areas and at the rate of two times in urban areas. In the original draft bill, this was six times in rural areas. Thus the concerns of those seeking to buy land have been kept in mind.
Similarly, originally, if land was not used by industry for over five years, it was to revert to the owner. This period — on recognising fiscal and other difficulties — has now been increased to ten years. What’s more, the land now returning to the owner goes to a state land bank proposed in the Bill.
The Bill allows acquisition of up to five per cent of agricultural land — but as a demonstrably last resort, with the proviso that the industry will have to develop wastelands in lieu. It, however, does not provide for returning this re-developed land to the cultivator whose irrigated land was acquired. Nor does it explain who would then cultivate this new land.
In the past, industry, if on finding it hard to acquire land, would ask the government to do so on its behalf. This led to discussion on the ratio: the government, it was suggested, could acquire 30 or 20 per cent if industry had already acquired the rest.
The Bill makes no such distinction. The government can, for instance, buy all the land and give it to industry; or industry is free to acquire all the land on its own or only a part of it. But compensation and R&R will apply in all cases, no matter which agency acquires the land.
If industry has acquired land on its own at lower rates, and requests the government to acquire more land for reasons of contiguity, the rates of compensation can not be different for the two parcels of land. The private parties will be forced the pay the higher rate of compensation even for the land it had bought on its own.
| KEY TAKEAWAYS |
| ONCE THE LAW COMES INTO FORCE |
| * Compensation and R&R applies to all acquisitions more than 50 acres in urban areas and 100 acres in rural areas |
| * Consent of 80 per cent of Project Affected Families (PAF), including landless dependents, needed for such acquisition |
| * The Compensation and R&R clauses would apply to all cases where acquisition not completed at the time of the Act coming to force |
| * Government can acquire any amount of land for industry provided consent is there, and compensation and R&R done |
| COMPENSATION |
| * Four times the market rate in rural areas |
| * Double the market rate in urban areas |
| * PAF can opt for 20 per cent of developed land in place of full monetary compensation |
| * PAF can opt for taking shares up to 25 per cent of compensation amount in place of full cash compensation |
| R&R (For land owners and landless dependents) |
| * Allowance of Rs 3,000 a month per family for a year |
| * Job per family or Rs 5 lakh or Rs 2,000 per month annuity for 20 years with index of inflation |
| * House lost to be replaced by an Indira Awas Yojana house in rural areas |
| * One acre of land for land lost in irrigation projects |
| * Rs 50,000 per family for transportation |
| * A resettlement allowance of Rs 50,000 per PAF |
| NO CONSENT NEEDED (but same compensation) |
| * Land for strategic purposes, national security, defence, police, safety of the people |
| * Land for railways, highways, ports, power and irrigation purposes for use by govt and public sector companies or corporations |
| * Land for project affected people |
| * Land for govt-administered educational, agricultural, health and research schemes or institutions |
The people who lose their land and livelihood get the same Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) benefits. In the earlier bill, those who lost livelihood got a better package than those who merely lost land. There is an elaborate package for R&R and this provides wider choice.
The Bill also sets up a new institutional structure to enforce the various provisions. At the Central level it provides for a national monitoring committee which would oversee all projects. At the State level, it provides for the State LA and RR Authority to resolve disputes like a civil court, a committee under the chief secretary to determine whether projects are for public purpose, and an RR commissioner to administer LA and RR in the State.
At the project level it provides for the District Collector to do overall coordination, and implementation, while an RR administrator would oversee administration of the RR and an RR committee (of elected representatives, civil societies and line agencies) would monitor the RR.
All land disputes are to be settled only by the State LA and RR Authority and its presiding officer who would be a district judge. No other civil courts except High Courts and Supreme Courts would be allowed to deal with disputes dealing with land acquisition and rehabilitation as per the Bill.
The Bill has many provisions as safeguards against indiscriminate acquisition like the social impact assessment, which is to be done by a committee delegated by the chief secretary, a provision for including details of the R&R Administrator in the draft notification of land acquisition of a project. Similarly the draft declaration of the project would include summary of the R&R package.
While land would be lost if not used in ten years, every transfer of land would mean payment of 20 per cent of the appreciated land value to the original owner.
