New Delhi: Land owners may get six times
the registered value of their land as compensation if it is
acquired for development projects like dams and highways.
The National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by Sonia
Gandhi, has made the suggestion in the National Development,
Acquisition, Displacement and Rehabilitation Bill.
At its meeting chaired by Gandhi here, the NAC reached
a consensus on combining the Land Acquisition (Amendment)
Bill, and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill into a single
National Development, Acquisition, Displacement and
Rehabilitation Bill.
"All land transfers for public purpose must come under
the purview of this law," Aruna Roy, member NAC, told
reporters here.
One of the recommendations to the government would be
giving farmers six times the registered value of their land as
compensation, Harsh Mander, another NAC member and convenor of
the Working Group on Land Acquisition and Resettlement and
Rehabilitation said.
He said there was consensus in the Council on
inclusion persons working on the land into the category of
project affected persons which would make them eligible for
receiving compensation.
"This would recognise the most invisible persons in
the land acquisition process who lose their source of
livelihood once the land is acquired," Mander said.
The NAC recommendations also include giving farmers
the right to annuity for a certain number of years over and
above the compensation for the land acquired from him.
The NAC also suggested giving monthly pay outs to
farmers instead of annual pay outs.
The recommendations seek to make consent of farmers a
must for land acquisition for projects by the private sector.
The NAC has suggested that 75 per cent of the farmers
and gram sabhas should give their consent in writing for
acquiring their land for development projects. It implies that
the rest 25 per cent will have to follow suit.
It also proposes to set up a commission to hear
complaints related to the land acquisition process.
The NAC also decided to write to the government on
having a enacting a central law to protect the livelihood of
over one crore street vendors across the country.
The government had earlier favoured that states take
the responsibility for effective implementation of the
National Policy on Urban Street Vendors contending that a
central legislation in this regard may not be effective.
In a communication to the NAC, the National
Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) had contended
that if protection of street vending was left to the states it
was unlikely that they would enact a legislation.
"The national law can give the policy a logical
conclusion which has to be implemented at the ground level,"
it said, adding that the model bill proposed by the Ministry
of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation fell short of the
aspirations of the street vendors.
"We welcome the response of the NAC and hope that the
government would immediately set in motion the process to
draft the central law to protect the livelihood of street
vendors," said Ranjit Abhigyan, project manager of NASVI.
PTI
