With time running out to carry forward promised reforms and development work, the Union Cabinet on Monday cleared an Ordinance making significant amendments in the land Acquisition Act. The changes will make land acquisition faster for five purposes — industrial corridors, PPP projects, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, and defence — without cutting down the compensation amount to owners or farmers.
The changes include removal of the “consent clause” for acquiring land for any of these five purposes. The existing Act provided for the consent of 70 per cent of land owners. This means multi-crop irrigated land can also be acquired by the Government for strategic and development purposes. “Such projects are vital to national security and defence of India, including preparation for defence and defence production,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said while justifying the amendments.
Jaitley said the Government decided to relax certain provisions of the Act and added Section 10A keeping in the mind development needs of the society. He said the mandatory “consent clause” and Social Impact Assessment (SIA) will not be applicable if the land was acquired for five purposes — national security, defence, affordable housing, rural infrastructure including electrification, industrial corridors and building social infrastructure based on public-private partnership.
These projects are essential for bringing in better economic opportunities for the people living in these areas and would also help in improving quality of life, Jaitley said, adding there was a mandatory condition for provision of job for those whose land is acquired for industrial corridors.
The Act will also bring under its purview 13 most frequently used Central legislations for land acquisition to provide higher compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) benefits to farmers whose land is being acquired. These legislations include the Coal Bearing Areas Acquisition and Development Act, 1957, the National Highways Act, 1956, the land Acquisition (Mines) Act, 1885, and those relating to defence and national security, metro rail, atomic energy and electricity related other projects, etc. Thus, a large percentage of farmers and affected families were denied the compensation, relief and rehabilitation measures prescribed under the Act.
The Government also feels the amendments will remove bottlenecks in the implementation of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, which came into effect on January 1, 2014. The Government said that amendments will further strengthen the provisions to protect the interests of the “affected families”. In addition, procedural difficulties in the acquisition of lands required for important national projects will be mitigated. “Proposed amendments meet the twin objectives of farmer welfare; along with expeditiously meeting the strategic and developmental needs of the country,” it said in a statement.