New policies on rehab, land buy gets nod

The UPA government today approved a Bill to broaden the definition of "public purpose" for which land can be acquired by the government under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

If the Bill becomes an Act, the "public purpose" could include "public infrastructure, such as electricity, communication, mining, water supply and public facilities."

The proposed Bill also broadens the range of persons for whom land can be acquired by the government to include "companies and associations, and bodies of individuals''.

The Bill was approved by the Union Cabinet alongwith the national Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R & R) Policy Bill. Both these Bills will now be placed before Parliament.

The proposed amendment in the Land Acquisition Bill widens the scope for compensation as the government can now acquire 30 per cent of the land required by an industrial venture.

The Act which has been criticised as draconian by land rights activists gives the government the right of eminent domain or supreme right over all land except those for which people have titles.

It allows the government to acquire land beloning to others for "public purposes". The phrase "public purpose" has been defined and redefined over the years and the newest amendmment gives it the widest ever range of meanings.

However, the amendment proposed in the Bill also adds some stern provisions to ensure that the land acquired by government for companies or other parties will be returned to the government if it is not used within five years for the intended purpose.

The Bill also includes persons having tenancy rights in the definition of "persons interested" thus recognising the right to compensation for the tenants.

The amendment Bill also moots a new dispute redressal mechanism replacing the lower courts to fast track land dispute cases. The Land Acquisition Compensation Disputes Settlement Authority has been proposed in each state.

The solatium given to the persons whosese land is acquired by the government for various "public purposes" will now have an enhanced solatium amount that will be 60 per cent of the market value of the land.

The earlier amount was 30 per cent of the market value.

Now, the persons whose land is acquired will get land for land , depending on availability, one job per nuclear family again depending on the availability of vacancies and suitability of the affected person. It also provides for training and capacity building for taking up suitable jobs and for self employment besides wage employment

Though a compensation disputes settlement authority has been proposed under the new amendment Bill, the compensation proposed in the R and R policy itself is not mandatory.

The proposed amendment has widened the the ambit of public purpose to include mining also. This has attracted criticism.

Says Ritwick Dutta, lawyer, Supreme Court: "The new definition of public purpose leaves nothing out. Besides companies can easily possess land if majority of the land is in the possession of the government."

Pradeep Mote an activist with the NGO Sruti that supports various leftist land rights movements said: "How can mining by public purpose? If the iron ore is being exported by multinationals for its own profit, how does that become public purpose?"

Srinivas Moorthy, advocate, Hyderabad High Court said there was nothing new as even now land could be acquired for mines under the Mines Act.

Developers of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) feel that the proposed guidelines of the R & R policy should be incentivised. "The guidelines of the proposed policy could have additional cost implications for zone developers. Though the contents of the policy are not known to us, we feel that the R and R policy guidelines should be included in the list of authorised operations in the SEZ Act and Rules. As a result, the developers will get fiscal benefits for following the R and R policy provisions," said Ajay Nijhawan, chairman of the EPCES panel of SEZ developers, which has nearly 70 zone developers as members.

On the proposed clause in the R and R policy about acquisition of a minimum 70 per cent of the land area by zone developers, Nizhawan said that the government should declare an area as the site of an SEZ.

"After that, developers could go and buy land at market rates from the owners. If there are contiguity problems, then state government can intervene. This will stop speculative buyers from procuring land in that identified area," he added.

The R and R policy which assures land for land and jobs for the persons displaced by land acquired by government besides pensions to the most vulnerable among the displaced persons will be notified in the Gazette soon, the government said.