Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh on Friday said that the new land Acquisition Act provides value for the acquired land and also takes care of rehabilitation and resettlement issues.
Addressing a news conference here, the Union Minister said that President of India has given his ascent to the Bill and within one month rules under the Act will be framed and notification will be issued shortly thereafter.
Ramesh also claimed that the newly enacted Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, would have a direct impact on Maoist movement in Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The Act would lead to a reduction in agitations relating to land acquisitions in different parts of the country, he added.
The Minister said that there had been specific request from the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Kerala to consider the case of States which have most of its area under multi-crop irrigation. He said that the priority for acquisition will be barren and non-productive land; and irrigated multi-crop land could be acquired only as a ‘demonstrative last resort’.
Elaborating on the various provisions of ‘The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013’ , the Minister said that under the new law, forcible acquisition has become history. Earlier law, which was 119 years old, needed a comprehensive review as it was non-democratic.
He further said that he faced queries from many states regarding the fate of land acquired for denotified SEZ, and assured he would try to deal with this issue when rules are drafted for new law on land acquisition.
Ramesh said that as the new law was under the Concurrent list, the States could improve upon the quantum of compensation as well as other provisions in favour of the land owners/farmers but the Central law provided a bench mark. He cited the case of tribals in the Central India who had been displaced in the last sixty years.
“The Governments will now not be able to retain the acquired land beyond five years as that would render it liable for returning the land to the farmers/owners. Also, it won’t be possible now to sell the acquired land for a purpose other than the public purpose. If done so, 40% of the additional value will have to be given to the land owners,” he added.