The rural development ministry is unlikely to accept a proposal by the National Advisory Council (NAC) for a single Bill on land acquisition and relief and rehabilitation. At present, there are two bills — the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2009, and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2009 — for the two processes.
Officials say the government is committed to bringing in a legislation governing land acquisition in the monsoon session of Parliament and there isn’t enough time to draft a new, unified Bill.
However, as the Bill is sure to be referred to the Standing Committee, at that stage, a suggestion that the unified Bill be drafted might be accepted.
The ministry has nearly finalised the draft Land Acquisition Bill and the Relief and Rehabilitation Bill and will send it to the law ministry for vetting in the coming week.
Last Thursday, Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh discussed the provisions in detail with the secretary and director of the Department of Land Resources.
Ministry sources said there would be separate Bills for land acquisition and relief and rehabilitation.
Officials said though the recommendations of the NAC were unexceptionable, there wasn’t enough time to put it in place.
The ministry has stuck to the proposal of 70:30 ratio involvement in land acquisition under which the private company will acquire 70 per cent of the land required and the state would then chip in with the rest.
The NAC had said the private sector should only be allowed to buy land directly from farmers that led to the ousting of 400 families or less. NAC members had ruled out any role whatsoever for acquisition by the private sector, but had expressed doubts that legally, such a provision might contravene the constitution.
The rural development ministry has decided to waste no more time on drafting issues and has almost completed its own draft.
This will put it directly in conflict with the NAC proposal.
