Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill 2015 Approved by Lok Sabha by voice vote Tuesday March 10,2015

  

 

The controversial Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill was approved by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, but not before the Modi government reached out to unhappy NDA allies and unattached parties such as the BJD and the AIADMK to seek their support for this crucial legislation.

The Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the RJD and the BJD walked out of the House while NDA ally Shiv Sena abstained as the Bill was passed by voice vote

 

In the official amendments it moved, the government accommodated some concerns of the Opposition and allies, such as dropping “social infrastructure” from the five categories of land use exempted from the consent clause.

However, other key points of contention — the Social Impact Assessment and the restoration of the consent clause — remained unresolved as the Bill moves to the Rajya Sabha, where the government is outnumbered — and the Opposition plans to force the Bill to a Select Committee.

The six important facts  about the bill are -

1	The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 seeks to Amend the Act of 2013 (LARR Act, 2013).
2	The Bill creates five special categories of land use: 1. defence, 2. rural infrastructure, 3. affordable housing, 4. industrial corridors, and 5. infrastructure projects including Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects where the central government owns the land
3	The Bill exempts the five categories from provisions of the LARR Act, 2013 which requires the consent of 80 per cent of land ownersto be obtained for private projects and that of 70 per cent of land owners for PPP projects.
4	The Bill allows exemption for projects in these five categories from requiring Social Impact Assessment be done to identify those affected and from the restrictions on the acquisition of irrigated multi-cropped land imposed by LARR Act 2013.
5	The Bill brings provisions for compensation, rehabilitation, and resettlement under other related Acts such as the National Highways Act and the Railways Act in consonance with the LARR Act.
6	The Bill changes acquisition of land for private companies mentioned in LARR Act, 2013 to acquisition for ‘private entities’. A private entity could include companies, corporations and nonprofit organisations.