Scribd
Upload
43 views5 pages

Land Acquisition in India Land Acquisition in India Refers To The Process by Which The Union or A State

Land acquisition in India allows the government to acquire private land for public purposes like infrastructure and development projects. It is governed by the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013. This law focuses on providing compensation as well as rehabilitation benefits to those losing livelihoods from land acquisition. However, the current government proposed amendments to weaken consent requirements and social impact assessments, which opposition parties argue will negatively impact farmers and favor corporations. There is ongoing debate around balancing development needs with protecting landowner rights and livelihoods.

Uploaded by

Parthgautam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
43 views5 pages

Land Acquisition in India Land Acquisition in India Refers To The Process by Which The Union or A State

Land acquisition in India allows the government to acquire private land for public purposes like infrastructure and development projects. It is governed by the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013. This law focuses on providing compensation as well as rehabilitation benefits to those losing livelihoods from land acquisition. However, the current government proposed amendments to weaken consent requirements and social impact assessments, which opposition parties argue will negatively impact farmers and favor corporations. There is ongoing debate around balancing development needs with protecting landowner rights and livelihoods.

Uploaded by

Parthgautam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

Land acquisition in India

Land acquisition in India refers to the process by which the union or a state
government in India acquires private land for the purpose of industrialisation,
development of infrastructural facilities or urbanisation of the private land, and
provides compensation to the affected land owners and their rehabilitation and
resettlement.

Land acquisition in India is governed by the Right to Fair Compensation and


Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013
(LARR) and which came into force from 1 January 2014. Till 2013, land
acquisition in India was governed by Land Acquisition Act of 1894.

Purpose of LARR

As per the Act, the union or state governments can acquire lands for its own use,
hold and control, including for public sector undertakings and for "public purpose",
and shall include the following purposes:

 for strategic purposes relating to military, air force, and armed forces of the
Union, State police, safety of the people;
 for infrastructure projects as defined under the Act;
 project for project affected families;
 project for housing for such income groups, as may be specified from time
to time by the appropriate Government;
 project for planned development or the improvement of village sites or any
site in the urban areas or provision of land for residential purposes for the
weaker sections in rural and urban areas;
 project for residential purposes to the poor or landless or to persons residing
in areas affected by natural calamities, or to persons displaced or affected by
reason of the implementation of any scheme undertaken by the Government,
any local authority or a corporation owned or controlled by the State.

The land can be acquired for private bodies for certain purposes:

 for public private partnership projects, where the ownership of the land
continues to vest with the Government, for public purpose as defined in the
Act;
 for private companies for public purpose.
Issues

Some of the important issues surrounding the Land Acquisition are discussed
below. The major land acquisition and conflicts happen in the densely
populated areas of the countryside.

 Eminent Domain
The power to take property from the individual is rooted in the idea of eminent
domain. The doctrine of eminent domain states, the sovereign can do anything, if
the act of sovereign involves public interest. The doctrine empowers the sovereign
to acquire private land for a public use, provided the public nature of the usage can
be demonstrated beyond doubt.

The Constitution of India originally provided the right to property (which includes
land) under Articles 19 and 31. Article 19 guaranteed that all citizens have the right
to acquire, hold and dispose of property. Article 31 stated that "no person shall be
deprived of his property save by authority of law." It also indicated that
compensation would be paid to a person whose property has been taken for public
purposes (often subject to wide range of meaning).

Legislative changes

The 2013 Act focuses on providing not only compensation to the land owners, but
also extend rehabilitation and resettlement benefits to livelihood looser from the
land, which shall be in addition to the minimum compensation.

Monetary compensation

The compensation for the acquired land is based on the value of the agricultural
land, however price increases have been ignored. The land value would increase
many times, which the current buyer would not benefit from. Secondly, if the
prices are left for the market to determine, the small peasants could never influence
the big corporate tycoons.

Delayed projects

Delayed projects due to mass unrest have caused a damaging effect to the growth
and development of companies and the economy as a whole.
Consequences

The consequences of land acquisition in India are manifold. which are (i)
landlessness, (ii) joblessness, (iii) marginalization, (iv) loss of access to common
property resources, (v) food insecurity, (vi) homelessness.

There have been a rising number of political and social protests against the
acquisition of land by various industrialists. The Land Acquisition Act of 1894
allowed the government to acquire private lands. It is the only legislation
pertaining to land acquisition which, though amended several times, has failed to
serve its purpose. Under the 1894 Act, displaced people were only liable for
monetary compensation linked with market value of the land in question, which
was still quite minimal considering circle rates are often misleading .

Alternatives

One of the alternative proposals to land acquisition is leasing the land from
landowners for a certain lease period

Some industries already follow the model of leasing lands instead of acquiring it.
Energy development projects such as oil & gas extraction usually lease lands.
Renewable energy projects such as Wind Power farms projects often lease the land
from land owners instead of trying to acquire the land which could make the
projects prohibitively expensive.

Proposed Amendments

The current Narendra Modi lead National Democratic Alliance (India) government
driven Land Acquisition Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha on 10 March 2015 has
seen a tough resistance from key position parties in India who have called the
proposed amendments "anti farmer" and "anti poor". The proposed amendments
remove requirements for approval from farmers to proceed with land acquisition
under five broad categories of projects. While the bill was passed in Lok Sabha, it
still needs approval from the Rajya Sabha, where the current government does not
have a majority, for the proposed amendments to become effective.

The following are the main "disputation points":

 The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition,


Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 defines ‘consent’ clause as "land
can only be acquired with approval of the 70% of the land owners for PPP
projects and 80% for the private entities. But the proposed amendments by
the Narendra Modi government does away with consent clause for Industrial
corridors, Public Private Partnership projects, Rural Infrastructure,
Affordable housing and defense projects.
 The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition,
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 says the land unutilized for 5
years should be returned to the owner, but the amendment proposed by NDA
government intends to change to 5 years or any period specified at the time
of setting up the project.
 While the The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land
Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 allows private
companies to acquire land but the proposed amendment allows any private
entity to acquire land.
 According to the new amendment if any government official conducts any
wrongdoing he or she cannot be prosecuted without prior sanction from the
government.
 The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition,
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 mandated the social assessment
before land acquisition but the NDA government’s proposed bill does away
with this requirement.

The National Democratic Alliance (India) government came under heavy attacks
from opposition parties and farmer organization for the proposed Land Acquisition
bill amendments. The opponents of the Land acquisition bill claim the bill to be
"anti-farmer" and "pro corporate". They claim that the amendments are aimed at
"benefiting the large corporate houses".

The opposition Indian National Congress has opposed the bill in and out of
Parliament. Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of UPA and Indian National Congress,
called the bill "anti-poor" and "anti-farmer". She alleged that the bill will "break
the backbone of India".

Samajwadi party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav said the Modi government is
"taking anti-farmer stand" and is "favoring industrialists".

Not only the opposition parties but also other organization that traditionally
supported Bharatiya Janta Party such as Mazdoor Sangh, Bhartiya Kisan Sangh
and Akhil Bhartiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram have come heavily against the
amendments proposed by the Narendra Modi lead NDA government. As per the
Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, the Modi government’s land ordinance tweaks the
fundamentals of the The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land
Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 passed by the UPA
government and supported by the BJP two years ago

You might also like