SEZ-hit likely to get a better deal

NEW DELHI: India’s transition to a global investment and manufacturing hub will be marked by a humane face. The government’s proposed policy on rehabilitation of project affected families will grant substantially higher compensation packages to project affected persons.

This will have a bearing on how land is acquired en masse for SEZs and the proposed mega petrochemical investment regions along the coastal belt. The attractive features of the new scheme include higher land compensation, preference for jobs and labour outsourcing contracts to the displaced, equity in the new company for which land is acquired and returning unused acquired land.

The scheme will be mandatory and will set the minimum standard while state governments will have the freedom to give a better compensation.

As per the new scheme, for a house acquired by the government or the developer, the owner will get compensation which is not less than any housing programme of the union government instead of a fixed compensation given now as per the 2003 rehabilitation scheme.

This means that any change in the housing schemes will also benefit the displaced families. For a house shared by several nuclear families, the compensation would include extra space for each of the nuclear families over and above the land acquired. The new scheme would also provide training and employment preference to one of the members of the displaced family. It also offers preference to them for outsourcing labour contracts.

The new policy would also try to compensate the land acquired with land. In cases where land-for-land or employment could not be provided, in addition to their compensation grant, 20% of it would be given in the form of shares in the organisation for which land is acquired.

While the government and the developer would try to give new land to the ousted as close to their original land, the actual cost of shifting will be reimbursed as against a fixed allowance in the existing scheme.

As per the cabinet note moved by the rural development ministry, the government will implement these in three steps.
An executive order under Article 73 of the Constitution will implement all measures except land acquisition, while an amendment to the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 and a separate new legislation will take care of land acquisition and rehabilitation.