The Telangana Government has proposed to include some of the salient features of laws enacted by other States for land acquisition within the purview of the Central Land Acquisition Act 2013. What have other States done in this regard?.
Tamil NaduTamil Nadu was the first and only State to seek and receive Presidential assent to exempt three major categories from the purview of Land Acquisition Act of 2013. So, land acquisition under TN Highways Act, 2001; TN Acquisition of Land for Industrial Purposes Act, 1997; and TN Acquisition of Land for Harijan Welfare Schemes Act, 1978 are outside the purview of consent clause and social impact assessment clause of the Central Act.
The State government can acquire land under the three Acts without seeking the consent of owners and acquire and give land to private companies if they wanted land and qualify to use land under the three categories.
GujaratThe Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Gujarat Amendment) Bill, 2016, has done away with social impact assessment for projects related to defence and social infrastructure like building public roads, canals and schools and affordable houses and also for acquisition of land for industrial corridors. It has also done away with consent clauses for acquisition of land for ‘public purposes’ and ‘industrial corridors’.
KarnatakaThe Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2015, enabled government to buy land up to 100 acres for public purpose projects such as construction of drainages, railway over/under bridges, drinking water projects, housing etc. It is an amendment to Karnataka 1961 Land Reforms Act.
Madhya PradeshA new land acquisition policy finalised by Madhya Pradesh Cabinet in November 2014 envisaged that land of private owners will be acquired for projects of public interest only with the consent of owners.
Private land will be acquired after paying price equal to prevailing rates as per Collector’s guidelines and value of immovable assets existing on the land. Thus, the seller will get double benefit- one for land and other for immovable assets.
