NAC recommends government acquisition of 100% of land for public and private purposes
|
COMMENTS 
In a departure from earlier suggestions, the National Advisory Committee backs the idea that government can acquire 100% of land required for public and private purposes. And, that landowners be given six times the price of a plot in the area. It also said affected families must participate in and be consulted on the acquisition
The powerful National Advisory Committee (NAC) has come out in support of the government acquiring 100% of land for public and private purposes “by offering very good compensation to landowners”. It said no private sector player could buy land for projects where more than 400 people are being displaced.
The NAC, chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, held a meeting in New Delhi on May 25, 2011, at which the highly controversial land acquisition process was discussed.
The recommendation that government could acquire 100% of the land is a major departure from earlier suggestions to amend the Land Acquisition Act that stipulated that the government could only acquire up to 30% of the land required by a private industry. Moreover, the government was allowed to undertake land acquisition for private projects only if the private party had already acquired at least 70% of the land.
Industry has been pushing for government to buy all the land required as it found negotiating with individual landowners difficult. Mamata Banerji, who rode to power in the recent elections in West Bengal, largely, it is said, because she opposed acquisition of land by powerful industrialists in that state, has been against government playing any role at all on behalf of private players.
All across the country -- mainly rural areas -- landowners are protesting the forcible acquisition of their lands for various government and private projects such as ports, mining projects, airports, power plants, special economic zones, irrigation projects, expressways, etc. As seen recently in Bhata-Parsaul, in Uttar Pradesh, Jaitapur in Maharashtra, and earlier in West Bengal, land acquisition has become a political issue. A new Land Acquisition Bill is being prepared, and the NAC inputs will be critical.
According to a press release, the NAC recommends that landowners be given six times the price of a plot in that area. It also said affected families must participate in and be consulted on the acquisition. At least 75% should consent.
Other recommendations made by the NAC on the issue include:
- There should be a law to ensure that before agricultural land is acquired other types of land that are more barren, less fertile or wasteland should be explored.
- Land acquired must be returned to the original owners if it is not used within five years.
- Agricultural workers, artisans, fisherfolk and forest-gatherers that will be affected by the acquisition should get 10 days’ minimum wages (of the area) every month for 33 years, as compensation.
- The landowner has the option to seek all or part of the land compensation in annuities.
- Bring in a single National Development, Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Act in place of the two legislations -- the Amendment to Land Acquisition Act and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Act. A National Commission for Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (NCLRR) should be established to supervise implementation of these provisions.
The NAC also said that acquisition should be permitted only for public purposes. ‘This will be defined as acquisition necessary for strategic and infrastructural purposes, and for social services like education and healthcare,’ said the NAC press release.
This means that the purpose for which land may be acquired has been narrowed. The 2007 draft of the Land Acquisition Bill had said that land could be acquired “for any purpose useful to the general public, if 70% of the land has been purchased from willing sellers through the free market”.
NAC member Harsh Mander said there was consensus in the NAC on including people working on the land in the category of project-affected persons which would make them eligible for compensation.
“This would recognise the most invisible persons in the land acquisition process who lose their source of livelihood once the land is acquired,” Mander said.
Source: The Indian Express, May 26, 2011
http://indiatoday.intoday.in, May 2011
Business Standard, May 26, 2011