CONTROVERSIAL LAND ACQUISITION AMENDMENT BILL 2015, PRESENTED BY THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
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All the opposition parties have been making a huge cry about it, they have persuaded the farmers to protest against it without telling them the real cause of the amendment and what will be the effects after the bill gets passed.
Now we need to understand that 4 major changes have been proposed in the amendment we will study them point wise and list their cause and effect:
1. Consent clause change and removal of Social Impact Assessment(SIA) for 5 categories[(i) defence, (ii) rural infrastructure, (iii) affordable housing, (iv) industrial corridors, and (v) infrastructure and social infrastructure including PPP projects where the government owns the land.
Previously for every land acquisition by the government, there had to be 80% consent for private projects and 70% consent for public-private project of not only the land owners, but also the people dependent on it. We are not considering it on a larger scale. For example, if government needs to build a highway 100 km long sometimes there are around 10,000 families dependent on it, now imagine consent of 8,000 families, which on an average have 6 members each, out whom 4 are illiterate and don't understand the principle of eminent domain(public interest>personal interest), it is nearly impossible to get a consent, not only this but things like SIA have made the land acquisition process so opaque that it is takes 4-5 years to acquire land and otherwise also SIA could be skipped if there is an emergency.
Now why will a foreign compony invest in India when it is going to take more than 4 years just to acquire land, he will better go to a country like CHINA to manufacture goods, in return INDIA will lose an opportunity to not only get a lot of investment, but also loose a chance to provide employment to its citizen, at the end the farmers are only going to benefit.
The previous government in centre had excluded 13 categories like Railways and NHAI from LARR act, 2013 act which didn't make any sense so these categories are included in the new bill.
Defence and Nuclear programs was facing a major problem because of the previous bill, as there were a lot of formalities in LARR act, 2013 act and classified information couldn't be revealed.
2. Use of Irrigated multi-cropped land for exempted 5 categories.
LARR Act, 2013 not more then a specified % of multi-cropped land could be acquired which came out to be around 5% of total land of a district, which is very less and the previous government said that the projects should be made on waste and barren lands.
We need to understand that all these industries are being set up because the government aims to provide employment to poor farmers. Now farmers and poor people don’t live near barren land, so what is the point to set an industry in a place where there is no man power so why will a foreign compony invest in India.
The real aim of these industrial projects is that farmers can continue farming but can also complement their family income by sending 1 or 2 family members to earn and continue farming. 1acre land farming- Income for 1 family of 5
1acre industrial development - Income for 50 people. So we need to set up industries near the homes of poor people, so that there is no time waste in transportation.
3. Return of un-utilised land.
LARR Act, 2013 states- If land acquired under the Act remains un-utilised for five years from taking possession, it must be returned to the original owners or a land bank.The Bill changes this time to (i) five years, or (ii) any period specified at the time of setting up the project.
There are many projects like nuclear or irrigational, where more than 5 years are needed to setup the project. Now imagine there is a nuclear project which is being set up and in 5 years it is 70% complete, according to LARR act, 2013 the land has to be returned, but according to the amendment, the time can be specified and the project can be completed in that time, SO WHICH IS BETTER? OBVIOUSLY THE AMENDMENT!!!
4. Offence by the government official.
LARR act, 2013 states- If an offence is committed by a government department, the head of the department will be deemed guilty unless he can show that he had exercised due diligence to prevent the commission of the offence and the official can be prosecuted without the permission of the government, the bill deletes this clause and makes it compulsory for the government to issue a notification stating that the official can be prosecuted or not.
Before taking any action regarding the project the signature of the appropriate govt. official is needed. Sometimes the action taken may go wrong unintentionally, according to LARR act, 2013 act in this case the official will be prosecuted. Because of which his image will be marred, threatened by this the official doesn't implement any program and waits for his transfer. So, at the end the project gets delayed.
To prevent this from happening there was an amendment proposed. This won't loosen the process of prosecution, but in turn make the process of land acquisition more efficient, and create a sense of support in the mind of the government officials.
All the readers must understand that the NDA and UPA governments have not been mentioned because this is not about petty party politics whereas it is about the central government, whose duty is to correct the mistakes which it has committed in its past.
*All the numbers and facts are estimations.Please pardon us if there is any grammatical mistake.
