BackFicci objects to provisions in draft land acquisition Bill
Industry lobby president Kanoria asks agriculture minister to consider some ‘practical difficulties’
Premium(PTI)
New Delhi: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), an industry lobby group, on Friday objected to key provisions in a draft land acquisition Bill that is being finalized by a ministerial panel headed by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar.
The Bill, which was introduced in parliament last year, was sent to a parliamentary committee for scrutiny. A revised Bill, including some recommendations of the panel, was presented to the cabinet in August but then referred to Pawar’s panel given the objections from key ministers. The proposed law, renamed the Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill, 2011, seeks to replace the Act of 1894.
In his letter, Ficci president R.V. Kanoria asked Pawar to consider some “practical difficulties."
“In a densely populated country like India, state must necessarily have a facilitating role in land acquisition for the industry as in some cases where large pieces of land are required there may be a problem for a marginal number who hold out," Kanoria said.
This was in response to Pawar on Monday saying that government would not acquire land for private business except in cases where private firms were involved in projects deemed in “public purpose" or for public good.
When putting up “large projects like steel, cement etc there is going to be a problem for private sector in the last mile purchase. In such cases if government does not facilitate acquisition then in all possibility the projects may not take off. Hence, in those cases where 75% of the land has been purchased the bill could provide for acquisition for private sector if requested by industry," Kanoria said.
Kanoria also noted that the classification “affected families" rather than “land owners", with regard to those whose consent has to be sought for any acquisition, was “too wide" and “it would be practically difficult to identify them and attain their consent."
Pawar said on Monday that the ministerial panel would recommend that the consent of 80% of farmers or land owners be taken before land is acquired. Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has been keen on the passage of the Bill in the winter session beginning 22 November and ending on 20 December.
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