Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012 Passed by the Lok Sabha Thursday

The Bill, which seeks to provide just and fair compensation to farmers while also ensuring that no land can be aquired forcibly, will replace the archaic Act of 1894, "The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012" stipulates mandatory consent of 

• at least 70 %  for acquiring land for Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects and
•  80 % for acquiring land for private companies.

The bill proposes compensation that is up to four times the market value in rural areas and two times the market value in urban areas. It was passed with 216 votes in favour and 19 against of the 239 members present voting for it in the Lok Sabha

Voting on the Bill went on for nearly three-hours. There was a last-minute hiccup when the Trinamool Congress demanded that the clause mandating private projects to take the consent of 80% of landowners be changed to 100 % as is prevalent in West Bengal.

Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said, the States could change this provision ie the States are fully empowered to improve upon the land bill

The Govt has moved 165 amendments, the Opposition has moved as many as 116 amendments to the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011, which seeks to replace the colonial-era Land Acquisition Act, 1894

 The bill also defines "public purpose" to include: Mining, infrastructure, defence, manufacturing zones, roads, railways, highways, and ports built by government and public sector enterprises, land for project-affected people, planned development and improvement of village or urban sites and residential purposes for the poor and landless and government-administered schemes or institutions, among others