Draft land bill may be made public soon

The much-awaited Land Acquisition Bill is in the final stages ofpreparation and is expected to be placed in public domain soon, incorporatingsuggestions made by Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council.

A Indian government source said Rural Development MinisterJairam Ramesh will hold "one more round of discussion" with officialsas part of drafting the bill before making it public "early nextweek."

The final round of discussion on the bill is likely to beheld on Sunday, the source said.

Immediately after taking over as the Rural DevelopmentMinister last week, Ramesh decided to redraft the bill prepared by hispredecessor Vilasrao Deshmukh to incorporate recommendations by NAC.

The NAC had favoured 100 per cent land acquisition by thegovernment for land meant for private projects to ensure that farmers are notexploited by middle-men.

The bill prepared by Deshmukh had set aside recommendationsof the NAC and stuck to the 70-30 formula on land acquisition that mandates aprivate company to buy 70 per cent land for its projects.

Some reports say Ramesh has broadly stuck to therecommendations of the NAC that calls for 100 per cent land acquisition by thegovernment. He is also planning to add a provision making consent of 80 percent of the land owners to the acquisition mandatory.

The Ministry also agreed to the NAC's another recommendationto integrate in one bill provisions for land acquisition and rehabilitation.

Deshmukh was against the idea and had prepared two separatebills for land acquisition and rehabilitation.

Ramesh, however, has made it clear that he will come up witha separate rehabilitation and resettlement bill for large projects like powerand irrigation.