- LAND ACQUISTION ACT,1894

- LARR Act ,2013- LARR Bill, 2015

History

• The Land Acquisition Act, 1894 is a law inIndia and Pakistan that allows the government to acquire private land in those countries.

• Acquisition of land for some public purpose by a government agency from individual landowners, as authorized by the law, after paying a government-fixed compensation to cover losses incurred by landowners from surrendering their land to the concerned government agency.

Purpose

• Developed as a legislation to acquire land mainly for the developing the railways network.

• Indian government accepted the Bill with a few minor amendments in its indigenous form.

LARR Act ,2013

• Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013

• Lays down rules for Compensation, rehabilitation & Resettlement of land and ensuring transparency

LARR Bill,2015

• Introduced by the NDA as a course correction of the LARR Act 2013 passed under the UPA regime as it was considered as restrictive by industrial bodies.

• Bill has attracted major criticism from the opposition and witnessed several walkouts in the lower house by several political parties .

Five Special Sectors mentioned

• Defence.

• Rural Infrastructure.

• Affordable housing.

• Industrial corridors.(amended finally)

• Infrastructure projects including PPP projects where Central government owns the land.(amended finally)

Comparisons with the LARR Act 2013

Drawbacks

• Removal of consent clause

For the above 5 sectors govt. doesn’t need the80% ( for private) & 70%( for PPP ) consent oflocal land owners for land acquisition.

• Removal of Social Assessment

New bill says only land owners will becompensated earlier all assessment was done toknow how many people will be impacted

• Fertility of land

Also whether the land is fertile or not will also not be taken into consideration while acquiring it for these five specific sectors. Thus even if the land is extremely fertile like it was the case in Singur (W.B) , it can be acquired if it fits the criterion of these five sectors, no question asked.

• Time limitearlier if the project wasn’t completed in 5 years then the land wasn’t acquired but the LARR Bill, 2015 removes this clause

• Private Entities

The bill changes the acquisition of land for private companies mentioned in the LARR Act 2013 to acquisition by private entities .

A private entity includes companies, corporations and non profit organizations.

Advantages and similarities

• Govt. has amalgamated 13 new Acts in LARR Act2013 like Land Acquisition (Mines) Act 1885,National Highways Act 195,etc. which promise

better compensation, rehabilitation &resettlements to the farmers.• Direct compensationDirect compensation has been kept same as LARR

Act,2013four times the market value in rural &double the market value in urban

Criticism

• Congress, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, RJD and BJD walked out of the House.

• Congress and other parties are accusing the bill to be "pro-corporate" and "anti-farmers".

• NDA ally Shiv Sena abstained from the voice vote of the Bill in lower house.

• Several farmers organizations staged rallies against the Bill

Rally at Jantar Mantar against the bill

Results

• Opposition had moved 52 amendments, which were either negated or were not pressed for by the members.

• In an attempt to placate the opposition and some unhappy allies, government brought 9official amendments.

• Bill was finally passed in the Lower house.

Trinamool congress MPs staging a walkout

• The bill is now set for the real test in Rajya Sabha where the NDA is in a minority and opposition is united in opposing it or sending it to a Parliamentary Committee.

• Final list of 9 amendments• 1. Social infra under PPP no more in exempted

category2. Panchayat's nod may be mandatory for acquiring tribal land3. Govt may acquire land for govt bodies, corporations4. Farmers may get right to appeal/complain over land acquisition hearing and redressal of grievances at the district level5. Ceiling on land for acquisition in industrial corridors6. Hassle free mechanism for grievance redressal of land losers7. Replace term 'private entity' with 'private enterprise'8.Limiting the industrial corridor to one km on both the sides of the highways and railway lines9.Compulsory employment to one member of the affected family of farm laborers.

Sources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Acquisition_Act_1894

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_to_Fair_Compensation_and_Transparency_in_Land_Acquisition,_Rehabilitation_and_Resettlement_Act,_2013

• Google images