The government will have to secure the nod of two-thirds of landowners to acquire a patch of land for private / PPP projects while acquisition in tribal areas would be possible only with the approval of local institutions of self-governance.
The enshrining of owners’ willingness to sell land forms a crucial part of the land acquisition amendment bill that was finalized by the group of ministers headed by Sharad Pawar.
The consent clause has been a sore point in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet, with a chunk of ministers feeling the restrictive clause could hamper acquisition and impede industrialization. There was also resentment against the provision of Social Impact Assessment and Environmental Impact
Assessment before acquisitions but they have been retained in the final draft.
The rural development ministry under Jairam Ramesh has diluted the original provision of consent of 80% landowners and livelihood losers to two-thirds of landowners.
The conditions for acquisition in ‘scheduled areas’ may help discourage takeover of land for private projects in tribal areas as has been the demand from civil society for a long time.
The draft bill says acquisition in scheduled areas should be avoided but if necessary, it should follow the consent of local systems of governance like autonomous councils.
The issue led to serious discussion during the meetings of the ministerial panel, with deputy chairperson of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia reportedly arguing that development should be taken to tribal areas. The legislation, piloted by Ramesh, will decide a cut-off date to implement the new bill. Finance minister P Chidambaram warned that cut-off date was important to avoid the anomaly of government paying compensation under two different bills (old and new) for different acquisitions at the same time.
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