LAND ACQUISITION BILL: SALIENT FEATURES

The LAND INVESTMENT IN INDIA, our country is currently under the big cloud of Land Acquisition Bill. Although not all of land owners are affected by it, but then it is the duty of LAND INVESTMENT COMPANY like us – AAMANI SPACES that we keep you up to date with the going- ons. In this series find the features of the bill, with each aspect covered in detail, so this will be in series of 3 blogs. Stay connected.

 

When does the ACT apply:

         This act will apply only when a private project developer acquires or purchases land more than 100 acres in rural areas or 50 acres in urban areas through a private negotiation with the landowner, or when a private project developer asks the government to acquire land on his/her/their behalf. 

So if a private project developer wants to escape this clause, he/she will takeland in multiple parcels instead of one-time acquisition, which helps him or her escape the application of this Act.

Also, if land has been acquired under sixteen previous acts, this act will not apply. These include SEZ Act (2005), Atomic Energy Act, Cantonments Act, Damodar Valley Corporation Act, Land Acquisition (Mines) Act, National Highways Act, Electricity Act and many others. This list is under 4th Schedule of this bill, and other acts can be added to this bill with just a Central govt. notification. 

·         Requirement of consent:

In the original Land Acquisition Act (1894), there was no requirement of any consent from the original landowner in acquiring his/her land. But as per this bill, consent of 70% of the landowners is required prior to acquiring land for a "public-private partnership" project, while consent of 80% of the landowners is required prior to acquiring land for a "private" project.

 Land can be acquired for "public purpose" only, where public purpose refers to a number of development projects: mining, infrastructure, defence, roads, railways, ports etc.

 This is an improvement upon the original act, since if the majority of the landowners do not agree to the project to be established on their land, a majority of them can unite and oppose the project by not giving their consent.  The other big achievement is that the definition of "public purpose" is much clearer and is related to development unlike in the past, where the government could acquire land on any pretext while terming it "public purpose". 

 There are some major lacunae even in the kind of provisions put up. For one, a large amount of land is acquired even today by public sector units like NTPC, BHEL or others. Yet, no public consent is required by public sector units in acquiring land, be it for mining, for power projects, for highway building or for any other purpose.

In the next part see other salient features like the notice period, compensation,  rehabilitation and resettlement etc. An understanding of the topic of the ACT will make sure that you will never be bogged down by the doubts and dilemmas about any of it. AAMANI SPACES a big name in the DHOLERA SMART CITY DEVLOPMENT is in the constant process of making the mass aware about the land acquiring and owning properties.

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Land Acquisition Bill Passed: 2015

In the past few days, since the Land acquisition bill has been passed, there has been a lot going on as a result of the reaction to it. We at AAMANI SPACES bring for you the detailed account that will help you understand the finer nuances of the act and how and where it does affect you, if you are a land owner or aiming to be so.

The government has decided to introduce an ordinance to make major changes in the existing Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013. It is in many ways aimed to be a course correction after the Act passed by UPA was deemed as restrictive by industry bodies. 

Let us start with the basics where we tell you what it means and what the basic is and context for such bill. After all BEST LAND INVESTMENT  for you is what we aim for.

Basics & Context: 

Land acquisition refers to the process where a government acquires land from land owners for any purpose. Generally, the purpose is related to development projects conducted either by PSUs (Public Sector units) or the private sector.

Prior to the passage of this Bill (and it is yet to become an Act), we had the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 which was imposed in India since the time of British rule. Under this Act, the government could acquire any land as it wishes to, in the name of "public purpose".

The British had never defined the words "public purpose" in a straightforward manner, which meant that in theory as well as in practice, a government could acquire land for any purpose they wanted, and term their purpose "public purpose".

After independence, this practice continued whereby Indian governments, both at the central and at the state level, acquired large amounts of land for various kinds of development and infrastructure projects, such as roads, highways, ports (air and sea), power projects (thermal, hydro and nuclear) etc.

 During 1947 till 1991, most of these acquisitions had been done by agencies or units in the public sector. After 1991, when liberalization had taken place, most of the land acquisition was done by the government to provide land for the private sector, either for private sector projects (infrastructure projects like power, roads etc.) but also for housing projects. 

On account of protests over the years against many such development projects, like against Tehri Dam, Sardar Sarovar dam, Singur or Nandigram, and many others which failed in preventing land acquisition, there were growing demands from not just the activists, but also to an extent from the corporates for a transparent and accountable land acquisition process so that while the people could get adequate compensation and would be suitably rehabilitated, corporates do not have to face delays on account of protests against land acquisition.

And it is in this context that the Land Acquisition Act (2011) was introduced, and finally passed in the Lok Sabha on 29th August 2013. 

In the coming parts we will analyse the highlights of the bill and also see if these have pros and cons attached to them. We at AAMANI SPACES ensure that you get the BEST INVESTMENT IN INDIA  with proper knowledge and understanding.