Land Acquisition Bill: 6 Facts At a Glance

BENGALURU: As the opposition raises an alarm against the Land Acquisition Bill, the government tabled the contentious Land Ordinance in the Lok Sabha. While the government is determined to push as much legislative business as it can the opposition has its own plans to derail the process.

Here are six important facts one needs to know about the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 or the popularly known Land Bill, as give by The Hindu.

>> The current Land Acquisition Amendment Bill, 2015 or the better known Land Acquisition Bill seeks to amend the LARR Act of 2013.

>> The amendment bill is intended to create five special categories of land use—Defence, Rural Infrastructure, Affordable Housing, Industrial Corridors, Infrastructure Projects which includes Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects, owned by central government.

>> The catch of this amendment is that the bill exempts provisions of LARR Act of 2013, which requires the consent of 80 percent of land owners be obtained by private players and 70 percent of the land owners for PP projects—which is exactly why the there is such an uproar against the bill. The possibility that farmers might be the biggest losers is high though the objective of the bill is growth and development.

>> The Bill allows exemption in five categories from requiring Social impact Assessment be done to identify loss incurred by the owners and also from acquisition of irrigated multi-cropped land as mentioned in LARR Act 2013.

>> On the other hand the bill brings provisions for compensation, rehabilitation, resettlement under the other related acts like National Highways Act and Railway Act in consonance with the LARR Act.

>> The Bill would also bring changes to acquisition of land for private companies mentioned in LARR Act 2013 to acquisition for ‘private entities.’ Whereas a private entity may include companies, corporations and non-profit organizations

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