Understanding the Land Acquisition Act

The original Land Acquisition Act was an act made by the British primarily to acquire private land to lay railways lines and for other such construction works. The Act was adopted into the Indian Constitution and is being used by the government, with few amendments. The government acquires private land by applying the principles and rules under the provisions of the Act. However, different states have also enacted own compensation and acquisition rules independent of the Act.

With the elapse of time the act was challenged at court in numerous occasions. One of the most debatable issues under the Land acquisition Act 1894 is interpretation of ‘public purpose’ and around which disputes concerning acquisition revolve.The term ‘public purpose’ needed further elaboration.

In 2011, the term ‘public purpose’ has been elaborated by inserting a new clause, 3(za). It states:

THIS CLAUSE INCLUDES

(i) the provision of land for strategic purposes relating to naval, military, air force, and armed forces of the Union or any work vital to national security or defense of India or State police, safety of the people;

(ii) the provision of land for railways, highways, ports, power and irrigation purposes for use by Government and public sector companies or corporations; or

(iii) the provision of land for project affected people;

(iv) the provision of land for planned development or the improvement of village sites or any site in the urban area or provision of land for residential purposes for the weaker sections in rural and urban areas or the provision of land for Government administered educational, agricultural, health and research schemes or institutions;

(v) the provision of land for residential purposes to the poor or landless or to persons residing in areas affected by natural calamities, or to persons displaced or affected by reason of the implementation of any scheme undertaken by Government, any local authority or a corporation owned or controlled by the State;

(vi) the provision of land in the public interest for

(A) use by the appropriate Government for purposes other than those covered under sub-clauses (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) and (v), where the benefits largely accrue to the general public; or

(B) Public Private Partnership projects for the production of public goods or the provision of public services;

(vii) the provision of land in the public interest for private companies for the production of goods for public or provision of public services: Provided that under sub-clauses (vi) and (vii) above the consent of at leasteighty per centof the project affected people shall be obtained through a prior informed process to be prescribed by the appropriate government;

Provided further that where a private company after having purchased part of the land needed for a project, for public purpose, seeks the intervention of the appropriate Government to acquire the balance of the land it shall be bound by rehabilitation and resettlement provisions of this Act for the land already acquired through private negotiations and it shall comply with all provisions of this Act for the remaining area sought to be acquired.

Thisconsent of 80% became another hindrance to the act. Land acquisition became virtually impossible especially where the population density is more. Let us discuss with few Census and statistical data to understand the problem. Mentioned below are few states of and Union Territories of India with population density (person/sq km) as per Census 2011.

A	B	C	D = B/C	E = 80% of D
State	Person /sq Km	Assumed Members / Family	Family /sq km	Consent Needed
Uttar Pradesh	828	4	207	166
Maharashtra	365	4	91	73
Madhya Pradesh	236	4	59	47
Rajasthan	201	4	50	40
Tamil Nadu	555	4	139	111
West Bengal	1029	4	257	206
Gujarat	308	4	77	62
Odhisa	269	4	67	54
Bihar	1102	4	276	220
Delhi	11297	4	2824	2259
INDIA	382	4	96	76

According to 2011 Census reports we find the population density of the states as mentioned in the Column B in the above mentioned table. We have done a simple assumption that, all of them who live in 1 square Kilometre are not the owner of the land. We have assumed that every family has 4 members and 1 among those 4 family members is the owner of the land. So in Column D we tried to derive the number of land owners in 1 sq km. In column E we found out the 80% of the owner from whom the consent has to be taken for acquisition of 1 sq km land.

Let us now analyse the derived figure in the above mentioned table. You will find the lesser the amount is in the Column E the faster is the relevant state in terms industrial and infrastructural development. Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Odhisaare growing at a faster pace in industrialisation and in infrastructural development and their figure in Column E is well below 100. That means for acquiring 1 sq km land in Rajasthan consent of 40 land owners are needed, for Gujarat its 62 and for Madhya Pradesh its 47. But when it comes to states like West Bengal and Bihar, the figure is well above 200! So in West Bengal, for acquiring 1 sq km land consent from 206 land owners are needed and for Bihar its 220. Both West Bengal and Bihar, in reality also, are not growing at a pace in industrial and infrastructural development by which Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat is growing.

Moreover, West Bengal is a state where land has played a major role in politics for last 40 years. The Left regime came into power with land reform as one of their promises to the people of West Bengal and Trinamool Congress ousted the Left Regime through the land issue of Singur and Nandigram. Land has become a political tool for these two political parties, when it comes to land these two political parties raise their hue and cry and resort to every possible ‘nautanki’, which in turn stopped the industrial and infrastructural growth of the state. In a more crowded area like Delhi, Metro Railway work got smoothly completed, but the entire Metro East West Corridor in Kolkata came to a staggering halt for 60 – 70 families in Duttabad atSaltlake. When it comes to acquisition of agricultural land these two political parties starts raising their voice but we can’t find them when any farmer commits suicide after not fetching adequate price for their crop! It is apparently evident that Left and TMC are not bothered about farmers they are only bothered about the politics related to land in West Bengal.

Amendments in Land Acquisition Act became inevitable, which was done by NDA Government through ordinance at the end of 2014. The ordinance makes significant changes in the Land Acquisition Act which are as following:

Under the amended law, the mandatory "consent" clause and Social Impact Assessment (SIA) will not be applicable if the land is acquired for five purposes. These include,national security, defence,rural infrastructure including electrification, industrial corridors and building social infrastructure including Public Private Partnership (PPP) where ownership of land continues to be vested with the government (The earlier Act provided for consent of 70 per cent of land owners whose land is acquired for PPP projects). However, the compensation and rehabilitation and resettlement packages will be applicable as per the new Land Acquisition Act for acquiring land for the five purposes. 

13 legislations, including those relating to defence and national security, to provide higher compensation and rehabilitation and resettlement benefits to farmers whose land is being acquired have been brought under the Centre's purview. 

Multi-crop irrigated land can also be acquired for these purposes.

40 years old legacy of Land Politics cannotend easily. We shall see Ms MamataBanerjee blowing her trumpet soon. In fact call is already given to protest state wide. Left Front ,who organised Taxi Strike recently jointly with TMC despite fuel prices going down, has called for similar protest. These two are in anarchy for all common cause.

So the famous scientist passed out from Presidency & Cambridge Mr. Bikash Singha has rightly said, “পশ্চিমবঙ্গ একটি ব্যর্থ রাজ্য” (West Bengal a failed state)