Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said rehabilitation and resettlement norms included in the new land acquisition Bill would be applied to private land purchases as well.
Ramesh said that in case of private land purchase, the state government would be free to decide the threshold level for application of the provision.
The move is expected to increase the cost of land acquisition by private sector players as they would now have to conform to the government stipulated R&R guidelines. The land acquisition Bill was earlier hailed by the industry as it diluted the consent provision for acquisition deals from 80% of the affected persons to two-third and allowed land acquisition by the government for private sector projects set up to serve a larger public purpose.
“There will be a rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) package for private purchase of land wherever private purchase of land for private parties is taking place. But the threshold beyond which it will apply is left to the state government,” Ramesh said.
Ramesh’s announcement is a major shift from the earlier proposal in the proposed legislation on land acquisition which had said that the R&R on private purchases was to apply to all acquisitions above 100 acres in rural and 50 acres in urban areas.
?West Bengal may say that any land beyond one acre will have R&R, Punjab may say any land more than thousand acres… that is entirely up to the state governments,” Ramesh said.
?If the state does not want to acquire land, it is free not to acquire land. This bill does not force any state to acquire land. When you acquire land, you acquire it according to this law,” he noted.
Overcoming sharp differences, a Group of Ministers (GoM) on Tuesday had cleared the long-delayed controversial Land Acquisition Bill, paving the way for its introduction in Parliament in the forthcoming winter session.
The Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition’ Bill, 2011 proposes consent of two-third of “land losers” (from whom land would be purchased) for acquiring land for public-private-partnership and private projects. It has no retrospective clause and instead there will be a cut-off date to be decided later, Ramesh had said.
The GoM was sharpy divided on these aspects, with a number of ministers opposing the retrospective clause as well as the original proposal for 80% consent by both “livelihood losers and land losers” before land could be acquired.
In May, the standing committee on rural development headed by BJP MP Sumitra Mahajan had recommended the government should not buy land for PPP projects or for private firms even when public interest is involved.
The House panel had also sought a ban on acquisition of all farm land for industrial purpose. CII President, Adi Godrej has then stated Parliamentary panel recommendations would adversely affect the industry, especially the manufacturing sector. Even commerce minister Anand Sharma opposed the exclusion of industry from the purview of ?public purpose? under the Land Acquisition Bill.