The finalised draft of the Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (LARR) Bill provides for rehabilitation and resettlement of land owners in all private purchases, but the threshold-level on which this will apply has been left to State governments.
The restriction on amount of irrigated multi-crop land and net sown area available for acquisition has also been left to the discretion of the States. Earlier, the quantity of irrigated multi-cropped land that could be acquired was capped at five per cent.
The rehabilitation and resettlement, as is known by now, will be in monetary terms, except in irrigation projects. The payment of compensation will be a one-time affair with no obligation on the buyer to be involved in the building of infrastructure and providing amenities for those being rehabilitated. The acquirer will put all the money in an escrow account and an agency established under the act will oversee the building of infrastructure etc.
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The Bill, which is being finalised for Cabinet approval, is slated to be tabled in Parliament during the winter session, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh told journalists here on Thursday.
“For the first time we are stipulating in this law that where private land is purchased, rehabilitation and resettlement will apply, but when and under what circumstances the States will have to decide. The threshold beyond which it is applied is left to the State governments,’’ he said.
The Bill says that the States are free to set appropriate threshold and if they can offer a better rehabilitation package, they are free to do so, he said. “West Bengal may say that any land beyond one acre will have R&R, Punjab may say any land more than a 1000 acres ... that is entirely up to the State governments The Bill provides for the baseline compensation that should be paid or the minimum package that should be applied.’’
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Earlier, rehabilitation and resettlement on private purchases applied to all acquisitions above 100 acres in rural areas and 50 acres in urban areas.
Asked why the land-for land rehabilitation provision has been diluted, he said, “Where is the land for rehabilitation?’’ and was silent when asked why people were being displaced.
Asked about the watering down of the clause on seeking consent of the gram sabhas before acquiring the land, he said the draft provides that if there is acquisition of land in the Scheduled Areas then it has to be done with the “approval’’ of the local institutions of self-governance. Otherwise, consent shall be required from only two-thirds of those who lose land, as against the earlier provision for consent of 80 per cent of affected families, including those who lose their livelihood.
The draft of the long-delayed bill was finalised at the third meeting of the ministerial panel on October 16. The Bill was introduced in Parliament in September last year and was referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee that submitted its recommendations in May.
Meanwhile, the National Alliance Of People’s Movement, in a statement, vowed to continue its struggle against the Bill, which they said, was a “retrograde step and will only facilitate the transfer of precious natural resources to private corporations and fuel corruption and land conflict.’’