The Group of Ministers on the Land Acquisition Act today agreed to present the draft Bill before the Cabinet in the next two weeks.
The Bill however would go through some consultation and tying of loose ends in a meeting between Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and Agriculture minister and GoM chairman Sharad Pawar this week. The minutes of the GoM would be released and views of all members would be taken. A meeting this week would look at it and finalise the draft, Pawar said after the meeting. He said there was no unanimity as yet but it would be sorted out.
One of the major differences was over the issue of acquisition of land for private projects meant for public purpose and for public private partnerships. While the original draft wanted consent of 80 per cent of land owners before any acquisition, today it was decided to stick to consent of two thirds of the land owners. There was overwhelming consensus for a two thirds consent , a minister said.
Defence Minister A K Antony had in the last GoM expressed reservation against acquisition for any private project. He did not attend the GoM today.
The GoM has also broadly agreed on another ticklish issue regarding the date from which the new law would be effective.. Finance Minister P Chidambaram pointed out at the GoM that two laws should not be in operation simultaenously.
So it was decided to create a mechanism whereby a cut off date is decided when the existing Land Acquisition Act would lapse and the new law would kick in, a member of the GoM said,
The meeting of Pawar and Jairam Ramesh this week is expected to work out this cut off date when this happens. The Bill would now no longer be effective in a retrospective way except from the cut off date that is decided, sources said,
Another important decision today was that SEZ Act and two defence Acts, Cantonments Act and WOrks of Defence Act, mentioned in the draft Bill would come under the new law as soon as it comes into force. At the same time the remaining 13 Central laws concerning land acquisition would be required to come on par with the Relief and Rehabliliation clauses of the Land Acquisition law within one or two years of its coming to force.
A clause that again has been accepted by all concerned is regarding the acquisition of land in Scheduled V and VI areas. There was opposition initially to the requirement to seek approval of the local bodies and the gram sabhas for this. Now it has been unanimously agreed to make it mandatory to get the approval of the gram sabhas before any land is acquired, sources in the GoM said.
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh called the Bill at this stage as a progressive one and said there was more or less agreement on most issues with just minor changes remaining to be done.
The clauses pertaining to Scheduled areas ensure that as far as possible no acquisition will be made in the scheduled areas and where it is done, it must be only as a demonstrable last resort. And when indeed this happens,, then the approval of the gram sabha and oter local bodies would be required,
There was also agreement regarding retaining the compensation package which would remain the same as before the GoM. Compensation would comprise market rates in urban areas, and twice the market rate up to 20 kilometers.
Again the decision in this matter is left to the state governments.
