The National Advisory Council?s press release on its draft land acquisition act hides more than it reveals. NAC member NC Saxena told FE it had agreed that a fourth of capital appreciation over 25 years would be given to the original landowner, apart from a one-time value of 6 times the circle rate. So, if an owner sells land for R1 crore and one of the flats built on it is sold, 10 years later for R15 crore, a fourth of the appreciation (presumably after taking out the value of construction and deciding what value is to be apportioned to one flat) will be given to the original landowner; if 5 years later, the flat is resold for R30 crore, a fourth of the appreciation will also have to be given to the landowner.
Though difficult to implement, it is the 25% clause that makes it attractive for land losers. But the clause was not put in the NAC release. Since Saxena told FE the 25% proposal had been cleared, we spoke to NAC secretary Rita Sharma who said: ?Some clauses were discussed, but only those agreed upon were made public.? Another clause on which there is no agreement is what constitutes ?public purpose? since government buys land for a public purpose ? does this include industrial projects? A meeting next week will finalise all issues.
