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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Future value of land in note to Sonia panel by Radhika Ramaseshan

Future value of land in note to Sonia panel by Radhika Ramaseshan

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published Published on Sep 22, 2010   modified Modified on Sep 22, 2010


The Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council is getting ready with its version of what the proposed land acquisition law and the accompanying rehabilitation and resettlement law should be.

The bills are scheduled to be introduced in the winter session of Parliament after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assurance to Rahul Gandhi.

A note drafted by advisory council member N.C. Saxena, which was handed over to panel members when they last met in August, honed the definitions of critical components such as “affected people” and “rehabilitation”.

A key suggestion is to take into account the future value of land while determining the compensation.

Saxena was tasked by the council with suggesting changes to the land acquisition bill that was introduced in Parliament by the previous UPA government but lapsed after it could not be passed in the Rajya Sabha.

His note stressed that land acquisition should go in tandem with rehabilitation of the displaced, and that displacement should not happen unless the complete resettlement and rehabilitation package was implemented.

To underscore this, Saxena proposed that land acquisition and rehabilitation should be fused into one law that should be called the “Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Act”.

Saxena, a former bureaucrat who monitors India’s hunger programmes on behalf of the Supreme Court, stressed that the acquirer must prove that the envisaged project was the “best among available to achieve the given objectives” and that displacement would be minimal.

“Today, project-affected people are no longer in a mood to suffer passively. Consequently, there has been growing protest and militancy leading to tensions, conflict and violence... A well intended, liberal and comprehensive resettlement and rehabilitation policy is, therefore, required not only to protect the interests of the displaced... but also in the public interest to ensure quick acquisition and faster access to such acquired land,” his preface said.

Saxena emphasised that all project-affected people and people’s organisations should have the right to information about all aspects of the project, including environmental assessment and the resettlement and rehabilitation plan.

The information, he said, must be provided in the “language of the people”. Some of Saxena’s proposals were: “Affected people” should be defined as those who were either “displaced” or had lost 50 per cent or more of their assets or income.

“Rehabilitation” would deemed to be completed only when the earnings of the project-affected people were brought above the poverty line The principle of land-for-land for tribals in all projects and for agricultural families ousted by irrigation projects should be enshrined in the act.

A minimum of 10 per cent of the project cost should be spent on rehabilitation and resettlement, excluding compensation.

The council is scheduled to meet on September 24 to discuss the food security bill, and the land bill could also come up then.


The Telegraph, 22 September, 2010, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100922/jsp/nation/story_12966910.jsp


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