12.8.16

Land acquisition made easy in Gujarat


President Dr Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent to the `The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill-2016' passed by the Gujarat assembly in March this year, paving the way for easy and speedy acquisition of land for priority projects. The Gujarat government will notify the Act from August 15.
The bill aims at diluting several provisions of UPA's `Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act-2013'. Revenue minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said the changes will boost development activities in the state as well as ensure that farmers get best compensation.“We have decided to give 25% additional compensation for rural agriculture land acquisition,“ he said.
The state law is apparently modelled after Narendra Modi-led NDA government's `Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill-2015' which was passed by the Lok Sabha but not approved by the Rajya Sabha. In August 2015, The Centre finally allowed the controversial bill to lapse.
Rules of the Gujarat land acquisition bill relax the clause for farmers' consent and provisions regarding fair compensation to land owners. The new law also waives the provision that requires consent of a minimum of 80% owner farmers as well as the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) done prior to the acquisition.
This relaxation will be applicable only to land acquired for defence manufacturing, defence activities, affordable housing, industrial corridors, and infrastructure projects, including those under PPP (public private partnership) model where land remains with the government.
It may be mentioned that similar provisions existed in the central land acquisition bill too. These provisions had attracted strong opposition from most other parties which forced the central government to allow it to lapse.
Under the new Gujarat law, government officials acquiring land may breathe easy now as the government will desist from taking penal action against those found guilty of violating provisions of the Act. Instead, it will be left to the courts to decide whether an official was in the wrong or not.
Sources, however, said that the state government can initiate departmental actions against officials for lapses in land acquisition.
The Congress had stoutly opposed the bill during its passage in the assembly . The Centre too had raised several queries before sending the bill to the President for his approval.

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