Five things you need to know about Land Acquisition Bill

Here are five things you need to know about the Land Acquisition Bill.

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha will take up for discussion the Land Acquisition Bill on Thursday. The Bill, renamed as "The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012", will replace over a century-old Land Acquisition Act, 1894, which suffers from various shortcomings, including silence on the issue of resettlement and rehabilitation of those displaced by the acquisition of land. Here are five things you need to know about the key legislation: 1. The aim of the Bill is to provide "just and fair" compensation to families whose land has been acquired for industrial purposes. It proposes compensation that is up to four times the market value in rural areas and two times the market value in urban areas. 2. The Bill further aims at making affected persons partners in development, leading to an improvement in their post-acquisition social and economic status. 3. The Union Cabinet has approved several amendments suggested by the Opposition, including the one that instead of acquisition, land could be leased to developers so that its ownership remain with farmers and provide them regular annual income. 4. The Cabinet also cleared the amendment that provides for payment of 50 per cent compensation to original owners whose land was purchased after introduction of the Bill in Lok Sabha in September 2011. 5. The Bill envisages that in cases where PPP projects are involved or acquisition is taking place for private companies, the Bill requires consent of no less than 70 per cent and 80 per cent respectively (in both cases) of those whose land is sought to be acquired. (With PTI inputs)