The Tamil Nadu government is attempting to simplify the procedures involved in acquisition of land for various government projects. It has decided to grant more powers to Collectors and other authorities so as to minimise the delay in land acquisition, which sometimes takes eight to 10 years.
At a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Monday, features of the report submitted by senior IAS officer T.V. Somanathan (when he was serving in Tamil Nadu) on land acquisition were discussed. Though several aspects were discussed, the files would go through the scrutiny of the Law and Finance Departments.
“The meeting has proposed to give more powers to Commissioner of Land Administration and Collectors, who are involved in the process. The idea is to give them more powers to do private negotiation,” a source privy to the meeting said.
Presently, files relating to land acquisition come to the government in five stages and if someone raises a query, it gets further delayed, he said.
Multiple departments such as the Revenue and Finance departments are involved and the procedure is “complicated and time-consuming,” another officer said, pointing out that neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, which goes by the Central Act, completes the process within two years, whereas it takes about eight to 10 years in Tamil Nadu.
The officer pointed out that if compensation was more than ₹8 crore, it comes to the government and the local authorities cannot decide.
“In many cases, we have acquired the land, but compensation could not be given due to the delay in the procedure. It is a burden to the government too because if the land is acquired by the government and compensation not paid, a 15% interest would get added,” he added.
However, the meeting did not seem to discuss ways to check whether lands to be acquired happened to be panchami lands.
Revenue Minister R.B. Udhayakumar, Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam and other senior officials were present.
Mr. Somanathan during his tenure in Tamil Nadu was tasked to submit a report on ways to simplify land acquisition procedures. The details of the report submitted several months ago were presented to the Chief Minister on Monday and taken up for discussion, which went on for about an hour, sources said.
