SEZ rows may get special umpires

NEW DELHI: Civil courts may be barred from taking up cases related to compensation disputes arising out of land acquisition for special economic zones (SEZs) and other industrial and public purposes. According to the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill 2007 drafted by the rural development ministry, a Land Acquisition Compensation Disputes Settlement Authority (LACDSA) will be created in place of courts in each state to look into such disputes. For inter-state projects, a similar inter-state authority has been proposed.

The draft Bill also seeks to bar state governments from acquiring land for private players by proposing that part VII of the existing Act dealing with acquisition for companies should be omitted. The proposal holds significance as the empowered group of ministers (eGoM) on SEZs had recently barred the state governments from acquiring land for private developers only for SEZ projects. It may be noted that there were protests not only against land acquisition by the West Bengal government for the Nandigram SEZ but also against the Tata’s Singur project, which was a non-SEZ.

The feasibility of the proposals will be examined in details by the group of ministers on the relief and rehabilitation (R&R) policy to be constituted soon. The PMO wants to seek the opinion of the GoM on the entire revised policy drafted by the rural development ministry. The R&R policy, when approved by the government, will lay down all parameters guiding land transactions including benchmark prices and compensation to oustees.

Laying down that land could be acquired by the government only for public purposes, the amendment Bill defines public purpose narrowly to include strategic purposes related to defence and any other work vital to the state and public infrastructure such as electricity, communication, mining, water supply and public facilities. For private project related acquisitions, the onus would be on the companies to acquire land directly.

However, an official source said that the new Act would allow some flexibility to the state to acquire land for projects where about 90% of land has already been purchased by the private developer. The draft policy has also proposed that rehabilitation grant should be given to displaced persons only in lieu of land or job. The proposed formula calls for the acquirer to pay an average of the ‘higher prices’ paid in 50% of the land sold in the area in the previous three years. The average pricing will be determined from land previously acquired for industrial use.