Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011: Main Highlights..!

The Indian land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement Bill, 2011 was introduced in Parliament in September last year (2011) to replace the 117 year old (Land acquisition Act.Land Acquisition Act of 1894).

The central government will move the land bill for the consideration of Parliament the coming winter session after deciding the cut off date from when the provision of the new law will come into force. The cut of date may be November 21,  2012.. !

* Two-thirds of “land losers” (from whom land will be purchased) for acquiring land for public private-partnership and private projects. In the earlier draft, this threshold was 80%.

* As per the final draft, approval of two - third of land owners and affected families will be required for acquiring land for PPP and private sector projects with defined public purposes.

* If the Bill is approved by Parliament the plan is to introduce it, vetted earlier by the relevant House panel, in the Winter session, it will remove yet another hurdle for investors and spur economic activity.

* The Bil-  now called the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011.

* The Bill, which will be the benchmark for states in framing their land acquisition policies, will apply on a prospective basis.

* Ongoing land acquisitions where award has not been made or possession hasn’t been taken, will not be impacted by the proposed law. Also, the provisions of the law won’t be applicable for special economic zones (SEZs), which are governed by a separate Act.

* The Bill also seeks to prohibit land acquisition in Panchayat Extension to Schedule Area (PESA) and forest areas. As far as possible, no land acquisition should take place in the scheduled areas & land can be acquired in tribal and forest areas only as last resort.

* The Bill seeks to discourage acquisition of irrigated multi-crop and agricultural land, it gives the choice of earmarking how much of such land should be reserved for protection against acquisition to the states.

*  The Bill proposes that the compensation for the land sold should range between 2 times the market price for urban areas and 4 times the market price for rural areas, with a sliding scale for fixing the amount for regions falling in-between.

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