The Rajasthan Cabinet has cleared the Land Acquisition Bill, 2014 for passing in the State Assembly in the session, beginning on Monday. Land owners will be entitled to 25 per cent of developed land in lieu of monetary compensation.
Being dubbed as an industry-friendly Bill, it makes the acquisition of land easier but hikes the compensation to owners substantially. The land owners in cities can get a compensation of up to double the market value, those five kilometres away from the city will get compensation up to 2 to 4.5 times the market value and beyond that up to 9 times, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Rathore told reporters.
Multi-crop land will be acquired only for infrastructure purposes. Private project promoters will be required to get the consent of 80 per cent of the landowners, and if acquired for public private projects, at least 60 per cent land owners must give their consent, Mr Rathore said.
Rajasthan will be the first state in the country to adopt the Land Acquisition Bill, which is an improvement on the Centre's Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 which is yet to be passed.
There is no provision of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) and the percentage of consent has been lowered if the land is acquired for public private partnership and totally done away with for core infrastructure projects like railways, ports, airports, bridges and pipelines.
