Mamata Banerjee’s suggestion that the government should keep away from land acquisition for private industry has got the backing of a parliamentary standing committee, which has suggested that private enterprises buy plots on their own.
The National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, which was introduced in Parliament last year by rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, had laid down that the government could acquire land only for a “public purpose”.
In the original bill, the scope of public purpose was wide. It included strategic units like defence establishments, railways, highways, ports, power and irrigation facilities for use by a public sector company or corporation, residential purposes for the poor and educational and health schemes. PPP projects and private ventures where benefits largely accrue to the general public were also covered.
But the standing committee on rural development conducted a thorough examination and recommended that land acquisition for private industries could not be considered a “public purpose”. The panel, headed by the BJP’s Sumitra Mahajan, will submit its report in the Lok Sabha tomorrow.
The committee said private companies had to find ways to get the required land without the government intervening in the processes, sources said. Such companies are in business essentially make profits and the acquisition of land for them should not be considered a public purpose, the panel is said to have concluded.
The same yardstick should apply to land acquired for public-private-partnership projects and they too should be kept out of the term public purpose.
Mamata had earlier suggested that the government should have no role in acquiring land for projects set up by private investors.
A committee of experts set up by the Bengal chief minister soon after she came to power almost a year ago to examine land issues had made similar recommendations.
However, when the government wants to acquire land for its own projects, it will have to seek the approval of the gram sabha, the House committee has recommended. The original bill was silent on this.
The original blueprint also had a provision that multi-crop land could not be acquired. The panel has not changed this provision.
The original bill said compensation in urban areas should not be less than twice the market value determined for the land. It should not be less than four times the market value in rural areas.
The committee is now learnt to have suggested that the compensation should not be less than three times the circle rate — the minimum rate for valuation of a plot in a neighbourhood — in urban areas and six times in rural belts.
The rural development ministry will study the panel’s suggestions and incorporate those it deems appropriate. After that, the bill will be vetted by the cabinet and reintroduced in Parliament.