October 20, 2012
NEW DELHI: Congress leadership has vetoed the dilution of land acquisition bill, saying that 80% landowners have to agree to let the government acquire their land for private projects.
October 20, 2012
NEW DELHI: Congress leadership has vetoed the dilution of land acquisition bill, saying that 80% landowners have to agree to let the government acquire their land for private projects.
Congress leadership has vetoed the dilution of land acquisition bill, saying that 80% landowners have to agree to let the government acquire their land for private projects.
The bottomline has been laid down by UPA chief Sonia Gandhi barely two days after a ministerial panel headed by Sharad Pawar finalized the draft bill, which says that consent of 67% landowners would suffice for government to acquire land.
The leadership has made it plain that consent threshold could be diluted to 67% only for acquisition for Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects if the ownership of the land stayed with the government.
The message from the Congress brass, conveyed to the PMO, is learnt to have sent government leaders into a tizzy. They settled on a lenient 'clause of consent' to heed the concern of the industry that the requirement of the consent of 80% landowners, provided in the original draft of the bill, would render acquisition of land for industry almost impossible.
Congress sources asserted to TOI that there can be no compromise on "not less than 80%" threshold as it flowed Congress's "political agenda". The leadership's insistence is set to trigger a fresh debate when the Union Cabinet takes up the finalized draft for approval. What is particularly discomfiting is that leadership's demand cannot be ignored even if it has few takers in the government.
The land bill was sent to Pawar-chaired Group of Ministers (GoM) for vetting after a clutch of ministers in-charge of infrastructure portfolios protested against the "stringent" clauses, particularly 80% consent, which they felt would discourage or delay acquisition and hurt private projects. The resistance at a Cabinet meeting in August nudged rural development ministry to dilute the clause seeking "80% consent of landowners and livelihood losers" to "nod of 67% landowners".
While the GoM this week sealed the 67% clause, Sonia's intervention seems to lean on the side of vast rural-farmer populace that is hostile to government's blanket powers to takeover land for undervalued price.
The leadership's disagreement reflects an unease that 67% consent norm may not fire the imagination of the section it is addressed to. The discomfiture over government role in acquisition for private projects was evident when heavyweight Congressman and defence minister A K Antony criticized the provision and demanded that 90% consent be made compulsory. His observation in the penultimate meeting of the GoM had indicated not all was fine with the dominant view in the ministerial panel.
Land acquisition bill has emerged as another of the flagship legislations with Sonia Gandhi's imprimatur, a pro-people measure that strategists feel can do what job guarantee scheme and loan waiver did for Congress's "mother bounty" image in UPA-1.
It is felt that freeing the farmers from government's supreme powers to acquire land for "public purpose", as mentioned in the existing 1894 law, would shore up party's credentials among the key social segment.
The bill is far from the idea of discouraging acquisition, as was originally conceived when agitations rocked the tribal pockets in 2006, and, instead, seeks to incentivize acquisition with better compensation. But the big change may be consent of landowners that is expected to remove arbitrariness of state agencies in taking over land.
Importantly, Special Economic Zones, that constitute a big chunk of acquisition, would be subject to the procedures and compensation of the proposed law, a departure from the present practice that was the root of heartburn among farmers and tribals.
Courtesy: TNN
