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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Govt moves to make Land Acquisition Act investor-friendly
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Govt moves to make Land Acquisition Act investor-friendly

The rural development ministry seeks to dilute the mandatory consent of at least 70% locals for acquiring land for PPP projects, 80% for private projects

Rural development minister Nitin Gadkari along with his ministerial colleagues have started informal consultations with leaders of various political parties, say people familiar with the matter. Photo: MintPremium
Rural development minister Nitin Gadkari along with his ministerial colleagues have started informal consultations with leaders of various political parties, say people familiar with the matter. Photo: Mint

New Delhi: The government is moving to water down certain provisions of the Land Acquisition Act to make it investor-friendly and has initiated consultations with political parties to evolve a consensus on the changes to be made in the farmer-friendly law.

In a note sent to the PMO, the rural development ministry has suggested a number of amendments to the Act that seeks to dilute pro-farmer provisions like mandatory consent of at least 70% locals for acquiring land for public–private partnership (PPP) projects and 80% for acquiring land for private projects.

The rural development ministry’s proposals also include dilution of a key clause of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) study criticised by states as time consuming for industrialisation process.

“The Consent Clause (Section 2(2)) should be re-examined as ownership of land vests with the government in PPP projects. The consent clause should be removed from PPP projects. Alternatively, consent requirement may be brought down to 50%," says the ministry in its note.

It says that “mandatory Social Impact Assessment study should be done away with. SIA should be confined to large projects/PPP Projects as it may delay acquisition process."

People familiar with the matter said on Tuesday that rural development minister Nitin Gadkari along with his ministerial colleagues have started informal consultations with leaders of various political parties.

On the basis of the feedback, an all party meeting may be convened.

If the consensus is evolved, the government will try to bring the amendments to the Act in the current session itself, people familiar with the matter said.

The government has made it clear that it is making initiatives to bring changes in the Act after the states complained that no infrastructure project is taking up after it was enforced few months back.

Sounding a note of caution, Muhammad Ali Khan, who played a key role in drafting the Act under UPA-II’s rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, has said that every provision of the law was drafted after much deliberations and widespread consultations.

“The minister ensured that every clause had a justifiable rationale. Any amendments must follow this same standard of diligence," Khan said reacting to the government’s move.

However, the government has cited the demands made by the Congress-ruled states to justify its move.

According to the government sources, Congress-ruled states including Kerala, Karnataka, Haryana, Assam and Himachal Pradesh have suggested several “drastic changes" to the Act.

At a meeting of state revenue ministers in New Delhi chaired by Gadkari last month, Kerala revenue minister Adoor Prakash even said that obtaining consent of land owners prior to preliminary notification is a “herculian task" as the identification of land owners at such initial stages may pose a problem, sources said.

The states objected to key provisions for mandatory consent and SIA study, which are made mandatory in all land acquisitions. West Bengal is the only state which argued that state government should be allowed to have own Land Acquisition Policy.

In its note, the ministry has also suggested amendments to another key provision on acquisition of “multi-cropped irrigated land".

“The provision to safeguard food security (Section 10) by development of culturable wastelands in lieu of acquisition of multi-cropped irrigated land needs to be amended as States like Delhi, Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand do not have any wasteland for the purpose," it says.

The ministry has suggested the definition of “affected family" needs to be re-examined as it is very elaborate and includes “livelihood losers" working in the affected area for three years prior to acquisition of land and whose primary source of livelihood is affected.

“The Act provides for rehabilitation and resettlement benefit for affected families. Hence, the provision is likely to be misused in the absence of clear criteria for determination of affected families," says the note.

The ministry has also suggested that the retrospective clause which stipulates that land acquisition proceedings would lapse in case compensation is not paid or physical possession is not taken needs to be modified.

It says that payment of compensation as per new Act to the persons specified in Section 4 notification under old Act leads to increased burden on the State exchequer. “The provisions of Section 24 need to be amended as it is leading to litigations," the note says.

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Published: 15 Jul 2014, 09:45 PM IST
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