The National Advisory Council's recommendation for a single bill on land acquisition and relief and rehabilitation has not found favour in the Rural Development Ministry as the government is apparently in a hurry to pass the bills in the monsoon session of Parliament.
The ministry has nearly finalised the draft and will be sending it to the Law Ministry for vetting in a couple of days.
The draft was given final touches in an internal meeting of the ministry on Thursday in which Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh discussed the provisions in detail with the Secretary and Director of the Department of Land Resources.
Ministry sources said that there will be a separate bill for land acquisition and another one for relief and rehabilitation.
NAC had recommended a single comprehensive legislation 'National Development, Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Act', instead of two separate ones at present -- Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill 2009 and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2009.
They said that though the recommendations of the NAC are not objectionable, there is little time to implement it now.
In the backdrop of intense debate on land acquisition, NAC has also prescribed a seven-point test for having a humane law that touches upon matters like a just compensation package.
The ministry has stuck to the proposal of 70:30 ratio involvement in land acquisition under which the private company will acquire 70% of the land required and the state chipping in the rest at a later stage.
