Even as the government is exploring options on how to facilitate land acquisition for industrial projects and urbanisation without causing discontent among the landowners, the industry has come up with a workable model.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has recommended formation of State Land Bank Corporations (SLBCs) which would do ex-ante zoning of land for industrial use, acquire such land and hand it over to the industry as and when required. The SLBCs would oversee the implementation of the relief and rehabilitation (R&R) measures specified in the law and pass the entire R&R cost to the industry.
These state-level bodies would acquire not only fallow/barren/unproductive land but also other land for industrial purposes. ?The proposed Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill needs to include a provision for setting up such land bank corporations to facilitate acquisition and disbursement of land for industrial use, digitisation of land records and also zoning of land as these will be key for systematic development of industrial land,? said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII.
With the Bill expected to be tabled in the ongoing session of Parliament, industry chambers have submitted their recommendations to the rural development ministry. Both Ficci and CII have strongly recommended that the land acquisition for industrial use should be increased since the government is aiming to increase the manufacturing sector?s contribution in the country?s GDP.
?Currently, industry utilises 3-4% of all land in India. Even when we are looking at increased contribution of industry in the country?s GDP to the level of 25%, the industry is expected to occupy around 15% land only. It is possible to provide land for the industry to this extent provided appropriate enabling framework is there,? said Ficci.
Ficci secretary general Rajiv Kumar has said: ?The Bill provides for sharing of 20% of the difference when the ownership is transferred after duly adjusting the development cost. The Bill could consider adjusting the R&R cost also, besides the development cost. Moreover, Ficci feels that it would be very difficult to implement this provision as maintaining such records may not be feasible unless the whole process is digitised.?
