Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011 Passed By the Lok Sabha

The Lok Sabha on 29 August 2013 passed the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011, also called the Land Acquisition Bill. The bill was passed by a majority of 216 votes out of 235 votes. 19 members voted against the bill.

Aim of the Bill

The aim of the bill is providing fair compensation to people whose land has been taken away for setting up the buildings or factories. The aim of the bill is to bring in more transparency to the process of land acquisition, thereby bringing assurance of rehabilitation to the affected people.

Primary Features of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011

• The Bill established new rules and regulations for compensation of the land acquired for industry as well as infrastructure projects.
• The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011 stipulates mandatory consent of minimum 70 percent for acquisition of land for the Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects, as well as 80 percent for acquisition of land for the private companies.
• The Bill seeks for compensation of around 4 times the market value of the land in rural areas as well as two times the value in the urban areas.
• The Bill includes a total of 107 clauses.
• The Bill will provide protection to the farmers as well as the rights of the farmers.
• The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011 replaced the century-old India's Land Acquisition Act of 1894 which had various shortcomings.
• The new Land Acquisition Bill will apply when Government will acquire the land for its own control, hold or use; or when the Government will acquire the land for transferring it to use of private companies for stated public purpose. The bill will also apply in case the Government acquires the land for the purpose of immediate and declared use by private companies for public purpose.
• The Bill, after being enacted into law, will affect the rural Indian families who have farms as their primary source of livelihood. The Bill will also have an effect on the urban households where land is acquired for industrialisation and urbanisation.
• The Bill however, exempts the land acquisition for the linear projects like ports, railways, irrigation canals as well as highways.
• In order to safeguard the food security as well as for preventing the arbitrary acquisition, the Bill also directs all the states for imposing the limits on those areas which are under the agricultural cultivation and can still be acquired.
• In the case where the land is not utilised even after acquisition, the Bill empowers all the states to return such a land either to the State Land Bank or to the owner.
• The Bill also proposed that no land can be acquired in the Scheduled Areas without Gram Sabhas’ consent.
• The Bill proposed that no person shall be dispossessed unless all the payments have been made as well as alternative sites for purpose of rehabilitation and resettlement have been prepared.
• The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011 proposed several benefits such as land for employment, land, housing as well as annuities, which will accrue apart from one-time cash payments to people whose land has been acquired.  
• Under the law of this new Bill, Wakf land will not be acquired.