New Delhi: The Lok Sabha recently passed the landmark land acquisition and rehabilitation bill that aims to provide fair compensation to those whose land is taken, brings transparency to the process and details measures for rehabilitation of those displaced.
The bill, which will now be called, The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012, replaced a nearly 120-year-old law enacted during British rule in 1894.
Out of the 235 members who voted on the bill, 216 backed it while 19 voted against it.
While the Congress termed it a historic step, most parties supported it but said fertile land should not be acquired for industrial development. Instead, barren land should be used for the purpose, they said.
"It is a historic step. For the first time it brings transparency in the process of land acquisition, compensation and rehabilitation as a matter of right," Congress member Meenakshi Natrajan said while participating in the debate on the land takeover bill.
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