How Modi's version of Land Acquisition Act will be industry friendly

With the Central Government keen on amending the Land Acquisition Act passed by the UPA government last year, by incorporating changes suggested by state governments, the people-friendly legislation is likely to morph into an industry-friendly proposition. Industries and real estate developers would welcome the change as they had said, ahead of its passage in Parliament last year, that the present Act would adversely affect them. [caption id=“attachment_1619747” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] The Act, called in full “The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013”, was a pet project of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, which he championed after the Bhatta Parsaul agitation by farmers in UP. Perhaps the eagerness with which the NDA government is pursuing the change of the Act has something to do with its pedigree. Some arguments of the state governments, which aired their views to the rural development minister Nitin Ghadkari in Delhi, are genuine because the Act has hard-to-implement clauses that would have come in the way of land acquisition for various infrastructure and social development projects. The key among them were the Centre’s role in land acquisition, consent clause in PPP projects and the need for impact assessment studies. Reporting on the state revenue ministers’ meeting with Gadkari in June, The Economic Times reported that the states wanted consent clause to be removed from PPP projects, the definition of affected family needs to be re-examined and autonomy for state governments to be reestablished. The ministers were of the view that social impact assessment study should be conducted only for large projects and retrospective clause for compensation should be modified. The ministers noted that penalty provisions against civil servants are too stringent and wanted return of unutilised land to original owners to be deleted. One of the common complaints of the state governments, which appeared justifiable from their point of view, was obtaining prior consent before the preliminary notification for acquisition. Interestingly, the most notable opposition to this clause came from the Congress-ruled Kerala, which said it would be a “herculean task as the identification of land owners at such initial stages may pose a problem” The main criticism against Rahul Gandhi’s campaign was that the Bill was politically motivated and it hugely favoured land owners and not the state and the landless as it affected various development and infrastructure projects such as affordable housing, and assets such as hospitals and schools. Interestingly, the spirit of the Bill evoked criticism even from economists such as Amartya Sen. In this 2007 interview with The Telegraph, in the context of Nandigram and Singur, he had argued that the prohibition of the use of agricultural land for industries can be ultimately self defeating because industrial production may generate more valuable products than what agriculture could do. He cited examples of global cities such as Manchester, London, Munich, Paris, Pittsburgh, Shanghai and Lancashire saying that they all came up on fertile land. The states are apparently speaking the same language. They want land to be available for industrialisation and commercial development and Rahul Gandhi’s pet idea seems to be an obstacle. However, if Rahul Gandhi was excessively guarded and certainly pro-land owners, the state seems to have gone in the opposite direction. For instance, if the existing Act wants the consent of 70 percent land owners for PPP projects, some states want it to be removed. The avoidance of impact assessment studies is another case in point. Forcefully acquiring the land of people, without consent or an impact assessment will infringe on their fundamental rights. The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI) also had voiced their concern before the Bill was passed in Parliament. It had reportedly said that “if the bill is passed and implemented, there cannot be any planned development of townships in the country… This bill is kind of one-sided, ill-thought-out doles may sound very altruistic and pro-poor, but these are unsustainable and will kill the goose that lays the golden egg,” CREDAI had said in 2011. Apparently, Gadkari has forwarded 19 recommendations for change to the prime minister for cabinet approval. The government will be very keen to change the complexion of the Act because PPP was the most commonly used abbreviation in Arun Jaitley’s budget. With the government turning to the private sector for social and infrastructure projects, it certainly will like to possess a legislation that will facilitate easy land acquisition.