“To acquire lands for private companies, the state government will have to first take written consent from 80% of the affected families. Similarly, it will require written consent of 70% of the affected families to acquire lands for public private partnership projects (PPP),” he said while talking to scribes at New Circuit House before leaving to Abhanpur to participate in Congress’ kisan sammelan on Saturday.
“Besides, no land acquisition is possible in scheduled areas (as under fifth schedule referred in the Constitution) without consent of gram sabhas. The new law will come into effect in next three months,” he added.
He said the as the Congress had promised in its 2004 poll manifesto to do development on the basis of legal rights, it implemented Right to Information Act (RTI), MNREGA, Forest Rights Act and Right to Education (RTE). “In addition, we recently passed Food security bill and new Land Acquisition bill in parliament,” he said.
He pointed that effective implementation of new law would deter Maoists to raise land-related issues.
He said the Centre made sea change in 119-year-old land acquisition law 1894. “The old was misused to acquire lands. The objective of the law was not fulfilled. The shortcomings of the old law were – forced acquisition sans consent of land owner, no provision of rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced people, misuse of urgency clause, less compensation rate of lands and legal complications,” he added.
“Contrarily, the new law ensures that the land owners get adequate compensation – at least four times of existing market value in rural pockets and two times in urban areas. Besides, livelihood losers including agriculture labourers, tenants and sharecroppers will also be eligible to receive compensation,” he said.
He said the urgency clause, which was usually being misused under old law, would now only be invoked for national defence, security purposes and resettlement & rehabilitation needs in the event of natural calamities such as floods or earthquakes. In case there is double displacement of any individual, they will receive an additional compensation of up to 75% of the compensation already provided for under new law.
The new law further incorporates retrospective effect clause that has three features - one - if no award (compensation) has been announced under old law, the new law will apply with regard to compensation, two - where an award has been made but the affected individuals have not accepted compensation or have not yet given possession and the proceedings have been pending for five years or more, the provisions of new law will apply and three – where a majority of individuals in an affected area have not received compensation the new law will apply.
He said rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) provision would also be applicable in private land deals. “If private companies purchase land for a project and the same exceeds the area thresholds set by the state governments for such purchase then R&R provisions will apply,” he said.
He informed that except irrigation projects, social impact assessment will be mandatory for each acre of land acquired by the government within six months.
He said the government could not use land for any other purpose than the said one. Similarly, the land, which is not used in accordance with the purpose for which it was acquired, will be transferred to government’s land bank or the original land owner.
In addition, upon every transfer of land without development, 40% of the appreciated land value will be mandatorily shared with the original owner whose land has been acquired, he said.
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