Rajasthan floats a stripped version of UPA’s Land Acqusition Bill

JAIPUR: The draft of the new bill on land acquisition released by Rajasthan on Monday retains a few aspects of the previous Congress-government’s version while easing up or scrapping several key components.

As reported by ET earlier, the new bill has done away with the clause to seek consent from land owners for infrastructure projects undertaken by the government in partnership with industry. It has also marginally decreased the upward ceiling of compensation for acquiring land in urban areas while increasing it for semi-rural and rural areas.

The present version of the draft text indicates that the state’s emphasis is entirely on expediting Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) projects in infrastructure — following a PPP focused budget, with massive allocations for big projects in various sectors — and deterring protests by stringent measures including imprisonment, a new provision which was not a part of the Central law.

All litigation regarding land acquisition issues has also been sought to be concentrated in a new authority, named ' Rajasthan Land Acquisition Authority', whose orders can only be challenged in the state High Court or the Supreme Court.

A senior revenue department official said the state is seeking suggestions and objections to the draft till August 26. "After they are received, the department will send it to the cabinet for clearance, which will in turn send it to the assembly and from there the bill will be sent to the president for clearance since it is under concurrent list," the official informed.

hile the doing away of consent provision in PPP-based infrastructure projects is surely likely to encourage private players to invest in sectors such as roads, power plants etc where the state is rolling out multi-crore schemes and policies, the retaining of provision to seek 80% consent from land owners in private projects may not go down well with industry.

At the same time, drastic watering down of Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R & R) measures, doing away with social impact study (SIA) even for large projects, introduction of 'urgency' clause are likely to invite severe criticism, if not protests, from those protesting against forcible land acquisition.