Forcible land acquisitions come to an end
TEAM HERALD
NEW DELHI: The New Year ushered in a new law to replace the 120-year old Land Acquisition Act 1894 of the British era, putting an end to the government’s powers of forcible acquisitions and assuring just and fair compensation to farmers with transparency.
The Rural Development Ministry on Wednesday notified the rules framed under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act to bring it into force.
A related bill was passed last year with the government incorporating two amendments of Lok Sabha opposition leader Sushma Swaraj to ensure its smooth passage, unlike the tussle on many other important laws that remain hanging.
The new law has come into force but the ministry is yet to issue the guidelines for its implementation by providing clarification on the issues that fall entirely in the domain of the state governments for implementation.
Henceforth, neither the Centre nor any state government can forcibly take over the private land for any public works and projects, including roads, buildings, and industry, without the owner’s consent and that too after providing generous compensation and rehabilitation of those affected.
The act makes it mandatory to obtain the consent of at least 70 per cent of land owners for acquiring their land for government or public-private-partnership (PPP) projects and 80 per cent for private projects. Land is a state subject under the Constitution and hence the major role of the state governments begins now.
The first and foremost is the requirement of setting up the state-level land acquisition rehabilitation and resettlement authority to hear the pending land acquisition disputes as also complaints against improper implementation of the new law. Three other key bodies required to be constituted in the state are the monitoring committee, office of the commissioner of rehabilitation and resettlement and a social impact assessment centre.
The new law provides for compensation at the rate of four times the market value in rural areas and twice in the urban areas and the land can not be acquired unless this compensation has been already disbursed. The state government has to also oversee the rehabilitation and resettlement undertaken by the private parties while buying land if it is more than 50 acres in the urban areas and 100 acres in rural areas.
