States more empowered in the new Act

India’s new land acquisition Bill, praised in some quarters and reviled in others, is a complex piece of legislation. It was passed by the Lok Sabha (29 August) and by the Rajya Sabha (5 September) as well. Recent obser¡vations by the Supreme Court: Justice Ganpat Singhvi of the Supreme Court has observed, in the wake of repeated violations that have come to light over the last few months, that the law has "become a fraud". He observed that the law seems to have been drafted with "scant regard for the welfare of the common man".

Need for new law: There is unanimity of opinion across the social and political spectrum that the current Law (The Land Acquisition Act 1894) suffers from various shortcomings, including:

• Forced acquisitions, and no appeal mechanism to stop the process of the acquisition.
• No R&R provision.
• Urgency clause, the most criticised section. The clause never truly defines what constitutes an urgent need and leaves it to the discretion of the acquiring authority.
• Low and outdated rates of compensation.
• Litigations stalling acquisition.

Here are some interesting clauses of the new Act-to-be:

Lease option: The Bill allows industry to take land on lease, instead of buying. But the decision rests with the state rather than the landowner (explained in section 105)

Multicrop farmland: Irrigated farmland out of acquisition ambit for non-farm uses. But state can decide to what extent farmland should be protected. The farmer does not have any say in the matter.

Problematic clauses: No guarantee of jobs in R&R package; compensation calculated according to circle rates much less than market prices; no protection to farmland; state government to decide if unused acquired-land should be returned to the farmer or added to its land bank. This applies even if owners return the compensation.

R&R provisions:

• Qualifying criteria reduced from five to three years of dependence on the acquired land.
• Affected family to include tenants or usufruct right, share-croppers or artisans who may be working in the affected area for three years prior to the acquisition, whose primary source of livelihood stands affected by the acquisition of land.
• Houses for all affected families if they have been residing in an area for five years or more.
• Choice of annuity or employment or one-time grant of Rs 5 lakh per family. Alternatively they will provided with an annuity payment of Rs 2,000 per month per family for 20 years (this will be adjusted for inflation).
• All affected families to be given a monthly subsistence allowance of Rs 3,000 per month for one year from the date of award.
• All affected families are also given training and skill development while being offered employment.
• R&R to be completed in all aspects within six months prior to submergence of land in case of hydro projects.
• The Collector shall take possession of land only ensuring that full payment of compensation as well as R&R entitlements are paid within three months for the compensation and a period of six months for the monetary part.
• The components of the R&R package in the Second and Third Schedules that relate to infrastructural entitlements to be provided within a period of 18 months from the date of the award. Industry will smile at:
• In the case of PPP projects consent has been reduced from 80 to 70 per cent (of land-owners alone).
• Definition of market value has been amended to ensure that acquisition price doesn’t form the basis for compensation calculation in future acquisitions. Also power has been given to the Collector to not consider transactions which he feels are outliers and not indicative of true value while calculating market value.
• A sliding scale will give states flexibility to fix compensation in rural areas (between two and four times market value), depending on their distance from urban areas. Earlier, compensation in rural areas was to be four times market value.
• Restrictions/thresholds on amount of irrigated multi-crop land and net sown area per district or state available for acquisition left to the discretion of states. Earlier amount of irrigated multi-cropped irrigated land that could be acquired was capped at 5 per cent, and amount of net sown area that could be acquired was also capped.
• Land size thresholds on when R&R on private purchase of land becomes applicable has now been left to the discretion of states. Earlier R&R on private purchases was to apply to all acquisitions above 100 acres in rural areas and 50 acres in urban areas.
• Payment for R&R costs by acquirer made a æone-off’ acquirer to put all monies in an escrow account, and ongoing commitments like annuities and benefits to be administered by agency established under this Act. Earlier the Buyer would have had to pay and be involved with R&R infrastructure building until complete, and R&R annuities to perpetuity. However, families will not be displaced from this land till their alternative R&R sites are ready for occupation.
• Collector can be considered appropriate government: In cases where the land sought to be acquired is below a certain threshold then the Collector can be the acquiring authority.

Substantive amendments: There were 26 substantive amendments to the Bill and 13 amendments that have been made in accordance with the recommendations of the Standing Committee. A few:

1. Revised definition of public purpose and revised consent requirements.
2. Restrictions on multi-crop land acquisition left to the states.
3. Restrictions on agricultural land acquisition left to the states.
4. Restrictions on private purchase of land left to the states.
5. Second amendment on restriction of private purchase to empower states in the fixation of purchase limits.
6. Additional compensation in case of double displacement.
7. State-level monitoring committee has been established to provide supervision over R&R functions.
8. The period for the return of unutilised land has been reduced to five years from 10 years. Unutilised land may be returned to the original owners-left to states.
9. The 13 amendments have been made in accordance with the recommendation of the group of ministers are as follows:
10. A revised provision for a more thorough social impact assessment process in consultation with panchayat raj institutions has been drafted.
11. Collector needs to ensure updates to land records so that compensation can be paid on true and accurate values.
12. Power to appropriate government to raise R&R taking inflation into account.
13. If land acquired for one purpose cannot be used for that purpose due to an unforeseen calamity, then the appropriate government may use it for another purpose.
14. If the government after acquiring the land sells it to a third party then 40 per cent of the appreciated value will be shared with the original owners. This has been increased from 20 per cent.
15. Limit on benefit from sale of acquired land to only the first time the land is sold after acquisition.
16. Flexibility has been given to the states to fix the multiplier by which the compensation will be calculated.
17. In the case of acquisition for urbanisation purposes, 20 per cent of the developed land will be reserved and offered to the original owners at a price equal to the cost of acquisition and development.