Land bill has left many basic issues unresolved: Medha Patkar, social activist

NEW DELHI: Criticising the land acquisition bill cleared by the Cabinet, social activist Medha Patkar today said it has left many basic issues of conflict over forcible land acquisition unresolved.

"It is also against the Parliamentary democracy that a unanimous report of the Standing Committee is not given due importance before finalising the draft and approving by the cabinet," she said in a release.

"We would also like to point out that whole process since Standing Committee gave its report has been extremely opaque and other stake holders have not been shared any detail whatsoever, even after repeated requests," she added.

Patkar said that Union Government was compelled to bring in certain provisions to control the unjustifiable forcible acquisition of land for the private companies and their projects.

"The consent of 80 per cent of affected land losers in the case of private projects and of 70 per cent for PPP projects has now become a precondition, which no doubt is a major change. However, why not for the government projects," she asked.

Excluding government and all infrastructure projects, has left the Bill a lame one, and not applicable to land acquisition in many conflict ridden projects, she said.

"It is also unacceptable that out of 16 different acts in India under which there are provisions for forcible land acquisition, only 3 acts are brought under the purview of the new Bill that is SEZ Act, Defence Act and Cantonment Act, against the standing committees recommendations,"Patkar said.

She said this indicated that the "British legacy is mostly to continue. The UPA has lost the opportunity to make the development planning democratic in planning all the projects, including government projects."