The legislation enacted by the Telangana Assembly in December, amending the Central Act of 2013 on land acquisition, finally got the approval of the Central government after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao called on Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday. Now, the bill will be referred to President Pranab Mukherjee for his assent. The Telangana government had tweaked the Central legislation and came up with its own ‘The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Telangana Amendment) Act, 2016, to speed up acquisition of 16,000 acres of land for the Mallannasagar reservoir in Medak district. The project would submerge 14 villages.
The legislation was preceded by protest by farmers who would be affected by land acquisition through an earlier GO. Within days of the legislation, a division bench of the High Court declared that the government could not purchase lands under the order.
After the Bill was passed by the Assembly, the Opposition parties had requested the President not to give his assent to it. They had demanded land acquisition by the Central legislation as it had provisions for fair compensation.
The State government, however, said the Central legislation would delay land acquisition and the former legislation had higher compensation and rehabilitation entitlements.
Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad also responded positively to the demand for bifurcation of the High Court, a release here said.
