Land Acquisition Bill: 6 problematic clauses

The Industry has serious concerns on some of the provisions of the Land Acquisition Bill passed by the Lok Sabha in the Parliament yesterday. Cost of land acquisition is likely to increase by 3-3.5 times, making industrial projects unviable and raising costs in the overall Indian economy, says Confederation of Indian Industry.

Has the Bill done justice to land owners? The following six clauses in the Bill say no:

1. The Bill talks of an urgency clause which, when simplified, means the Government can acquire land ignoring all pre conditions set for acquisition in the Bill.

2. Land owners may not have much to say after all. Clause 63 prevents them from contesting state decisions.      

3. The Resettlement & Rehabilitation clause gives no guarantee to jobs.

4. The Bill compensates different categories of affected families at par, not aligned to their losses. So there could be cases where compensation calculated is lower than the market rate.

5. State is the ultimate decision maker when it comes to acquiring farm land.

6. The Bill does not guarantee return of unused land if land owner repays compensation to state.

In addition, the CII notes that the Bill would lead to major delays in the process of Land acquisition. The clause of obtaining consent of 80 percent of affected families for private sector and 70 percent of affected families for Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects would make the process of obtaining consent a very long drawn out process.