Land for smaller projects to be acquired at market rate

Bengaluru: The state cabinet on Monday resolved to skip the setting up of reclamation and rehabilitation (RnR) plans for land acquisitions below 100 acres.
Briefing the media after the cabinet meeting, law minister T B Jayachandra said that the normal process of land acquisition for any public project is to first prepare the RnR plans and seek the approval of the relevant departments."If we follow the policy, we will never be able to complete projects in time. As a result, a decision has been taken to directly purchase land from private parties at market rate," he said.
Jayachandra said deputy commissioners (DC) of districts will be in charge of fixing the price, in consultation with a price committee to be set up in each district. He said the process of seeking direct purchase of land will be based on whether there is an emergency for doing so.
"This apart, the departments will have to get the consent of the private parties. There cannot be any forcible purchase by the government," he said.
The cabinet also decided to relax the stamp registration fee for ‘C' category mines, considering that no company is coming forward to procure the mines on lease of 50 years. "The biggest obstacle has been the stamp duty which comes up to Rs 2,800 crore for the 15 ‘C' category mines to be auctioned. We have now decided to relax this by bringing an amendment to the Stamps and Registration Act based on the Chhattisgarh model," said the law minister.
The government would get Rs 17,000 crore to Rs 18,000 crore from the auctions, which is much higher than what will be lost by the stamps and registration department, Jayachandra said.
Other decisions:
* To hand over 12 acres of land belonging to the textiles department in Gadag to the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) for the construction of a cricket stadium.
* To set up State Food Commission (SFC) as a watchdog to implement the Food Safety and Security Act (FSSA) in Karnataka.
* To extend the tenure of the State Finance Commission (SFC) till December 2017