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The long pending Land Acquisition Act Amendment Bill is unlikely to be passed any time soon as warring factions, corporate players and the government's political allies, battle over the draft proposals.
With farmer protests against forceful land acquisition gaining momentum, last week Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assured that the Bill will be moved in the coming session of Parliament. "There is no consensus over the Bill among the policymakers and corporates. The corporates are of the view that all the land acquisition must be done by the government for any PPP (public private partnership) project. Also, (they feel) all the compensation must be decided by the government itself," a senior official in the ministry of urban development said.
"Earlier there were many consultation sessions but there was no consensus among various ministries, political allies and corporates. It is next to impossible for the draft to go to Parliament in the current form, seeing that there are so many dissenting voices and corporate pressures," the official added.
The current draft of the amendment Bill, which has been pending for the last two sessions, proposes to acquire land at the market rate in a 70:30 proportion, wherein 70 per cent of the land should be bought at market price by the private party involved in the project, while the government will acquire the rest of the 30 per cent. However, corporate players feel that for a PPP project the government should acquire the requisite land as many big projects get stuck due acquisition issues.
"We do not have any problem in paying compensation at market price. It is only that protests start once the project takes off and people come up with demands for higher compensation. For the larger PPP projects, the acquisition must be done by the government," a senior executive at Jindal Steel and Power Ltd said.
The government is also facing problem with its allies. The Relief and Rehabilitation Bill, 2009 and the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill were both passed in the Lok Sabha in February, 2009 but got stalled in the face of opposition from Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee in the Rajya Sabha.
"There are many loopholes in the current bill. For example, there is no clear definition of the use of land for 'public purpose'. It may be subject to misuse. Also, there is no clear mechanism about the price evaluation of land and resettlement in the Bill. Also, it is not clear on the manipulation by the state government where most problems occur. It all needs to be clarified," a senior Trinamool Congress party leader told Mail Today.
Banerjee has also been insisting that private players must acquire 90 per cent of the land and the government should only acquire 10 per cent, while making it clear that she is opposed to forceful acquisition of land. Meanwhile, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said the government should take the responsibility of acquiring land for industrial development. CII wants the government to establish state land bank corporations. "The state should fulfill its responsibility for economic development and must play its critical role in acquiring land for industrial projects," CII said.
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