Nov 20, 2014
Law minister Sadananda Gowda on Wednesday ruled out taking the
ordinance route for any amendments in the Land Acquisition Act <<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Acquisition_Act_1894>> though he
said the government was in favour of bringing some changes. "There is a proposal. The call has to be taken by the concerned (
rural
development) ministry," he said, without elaborating on the proposed
changes.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley had last week said the
government will amend the "tough" land acquisition law even without
opposition support as it looks to restore confidence in the economy. The
government is in favour of consulting other parties and developing a
consensus on the proposed changes. Some states have already expressed concern and cited difficulties in
acquiring land for infrastructure projects with stringent clause such as
obtaining consent of at least 70% of affected landowners in case of
PPP
projects and 80% in case of private projects.
Source -
Times of India
Nov 9, 2014
The Land Acquisition Bill, which was passed during the previous
UPA
regime with then opposition BJP supporting it, seeks to set a fair
compensation for farm land being taken over for industrial projects. But
the law has made land acquisition very difficult, slowing
projects. States too have come out openly against the law saying it had
hurt the process of acquiring land for infrastructure projects. Jaitley
said that the "obstacles" to the land laws would have to be first
removed in order to implement the concept of smart cities in India.
In Budget 2014-15, Jaitley had proposed an allocation of Rs 7,060
crore for developing 100 'smart cities' in the country. The
Rural
Development Ministry has already suggested a number of amendments to the
Land Acquisition Act that will water down provisions such as mandatory
consent of at least 70% locals for acquiring land for PPP projects, and
80 per cent for private projects. Jaitley also said that the
government's disinvestment programme will "unfold" in the next couple of
days.
July 15, 2014.
The government is keen on bringing changes in the new Land Acquisition Act to make it more industry friendly. The
government may also convene an all-party meet to evolve a consensus so
that a Bill to amend the one-year-old law could be introduced in the
ongoing
session of Parliament.
Rural Development Minister
Nitin
Gadkari has already started informal consultations with the allies as
well as some of the opposition parties.
The Ministry of Rural
Development (MoRD) has sent a note to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO),
suggesting dilution in some of the key provisions of the Act, as
proposed by the revenue ministers of the state governments during their
recent meeting with Gadkari.
The provisions that the MoRD is keen
to dilute include the one that made it mandatory to obtain prior
consent of at least 70 per cent of land owners in case of acquisitions
for public-private-partnership (PPP) projects and 80 per cent in case of
private projects.
In its note to the PMO, the MoRD suggested that the
requirement of consent of land owners should be done away with for the
PPP projects, where the governments hold ownership of the land. If
the rider cannot be struck off, the clause should be revised to make
sure that land could be acquired even if 50 per cent of the owners had
given consent, the MoRD argued in its note. The Congress-led UPA
government got the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land
Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill passed by both the
Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha during the monsoon session of Parliament last
year. It replaced the archaic Land Acquisition Act of 1894. The
new law was projected as a pro-farmer legislation and triggered concerns
in the industry about the delays it would cause to acquire land for any
project. Though the BJP helped pass the bill in Parliament, the
party hinted during its campaign for the Lok Sabha polls earlier this
year that it would give the law a re-look if elected to power.
Time will only tell...
