Moneylife Personal Finance Magazine; Bv Rao; October 30, 2010
The National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by Sonia Gandhi, may force the government’s hand to include resettlement & rehabilitation (R&R) in the new Land Acquisition Bill which, the prime minister has promised Rahul Gandhi, will be introduced in Parliament in November. NAC is also likely to recommend the principle of ‘land for land’ incorporated in the Bill to ensure that the ousted tribals and farmers get land in addition to the compensation for acquired land. But the most important point raised by NAC member and food security expert,
Dr Narendra C Saxena, is that the compensation to the landowner should be determined on the basis of ‘future value of land’. The price of land shoots up manifold once development takes place and, as such, the landowner should enjoy the fruits of the development instead of the current practice of paying the rates prevailing at the time of acquisition, Mr Saxena stressed in the note circulated for consideration of the NAC’s 24th September meeting. His note says land acquisition should go in tandem with rehabilitation of the displaced and the displacement should take place only after complete R&R. It says rehabilitation would be deemed to be completed only when the project-affected people are brought above the poverty line. It also calls for re-defining the ‘affected people’ to be compensated under the proposed law as those who were either ‘displaced’ from their home, land or agriculture field or had lost 50% or more of their assets or income. The note stressed that a minimum 10% of the project cost should be spent on rehabilitation and resettlement, excluding compensation. That’s not all. Mr Saxena has also recommended the Right to Information (RTI) to all project-affected people and people’s organisations about all aspects of the projects, including environment assessment and R&R plan. The information, he says, must be provided in the ‘language of the people’. Language that is sure to make corporate India squirm.
.JPG)
.JPG)
