Sonia Gandhi insists on consent of 80% of owners for acquiring land.
Following the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi vetoing dilution of the land bill, the group of ministers (GoM) led by agriculture minister Shard Pawar is meeting again on Tuesday to discuss changes, particularly on the percentage of land losers’ consent required for acquiring land.
Sources said Gandhi had objected to the GoM’s proposal that consent of 66% of ‘land losers’ (from whom land would be purchased) would be needed for acquiring land for public-private-partnership and private projects. She had proposed that consent of 80% of owners should be made mandatory for acquiring land for private projects.
“Only in case of acquisition for public-private-partnership (PPP) projects the threshold limit could be diluted to 67%, if the ownership of the land remained with the government,” sources quoted her communicating to the PMO.
The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011 was introduced in parliament in September last year and was referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee which submitted its recommendations in May. But due to differences within the government, prime minister Manmohan Singh constituted a GoM about a month ago to decide on a draft of the bill.
The GoM on October 16 approved the draft and forwarded it to the cabinet for consent.
During the GoM meeting, defence minister AK Antony had demanded that 90% consent be made compulsory.
While Gandhi’s recommendations has upset the
industralists, who believe it will push project costs and delays industrial growth, a group of farmers, who met union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh asked for stringent provisions for acquiring farm land.
They expressed disappointment at the watering down of the draft of the Land Acquisition Bill by the GoM.
The group, Kissan Mahasangh under Devinder Seharawat said surplus land was taken over from the farmers immediately to distribute to landless, and the new law will facilitate accumulation of thousands of acres of land by private individuals and companies.
Jairam had reportedly convinced Sonia that the new Bill has the best R&R package as it covers families of all farmers, landless and livelihood losers who resided in the area for five years or more with a house or one-time financial grant in lieu thereof plus annuity of Rs2,000 per month per family for 20 years, adjustable to inflation, or employment.
But insiders say, Gandhi insisted that the broad contours of the Bill drawn up by the national advisory council were in public interest and should not be rejected because of lobbying by the vested interests.
The new Bill, which has been rechristened ‘The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill’, will be sought to be passed either in the winter session or in the next budget session to bring it into force by next summer as the Congress feels it will help the party in garnering rural votes in next Lok Sabha elections in 2014.
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