BJP on board, land bill chances brighten

BASANT KUMAR MOHANTY

Jairam Ramesh, Sushma Swaraj New Delhi, April 18: The government appears to have won the BJP's support for the land acquisition bill, a breakthrough that improves its prospects for becoming law. The prized support from the main Opposition party came after the government conceded the BJP's key demands. "The government has agreed to almost all our demands," said Sushma Swaraj, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Arun Jaitley, Sushma's counterpart in the Rajya Sabha, also attended the all-party meeting and raised the land mafia issue. If the BJP, with 115 Lok Sabha MPs, keeps its word, the government can get the bill passed. The government has also accepted a major demand by the CPM that sharecroppers who have actually tilled the land for several years should get compensation if land is acquired. This is relevant to Bengal, which has a large number of bargadars. But CPM leader Basudev Acharia said his party would not support the bill unless all its five demands were met. Describing the meeting's outcome as a "significant forward movement", rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said the bill might be passed in the second half of the budget session starting next week, if there was no disruption. The following are the key suggestions accepted or rejected by the government: LEASE BJP: Include provision to lease land Centre: Lease is a state subject. But bill will have an enabling provision to allow lease if the state government concerned decides to give out one, through its own law LAND MAFIA BJP, Shiv Sena, JD(U), BJD: The land mafia have cornered plots along industrial corridors and in towns in anticipation of high compensation after the bill is passed. Include provision to ensure the original land-losers get the benefits of compensation Centre: Around 40-50 per cent of the compensation will be paid to the original land-loser if a plot the government wants to acquire changed hands between September 5, 2011, and the date the land law comes into effect. But two riders are in place: the government acquisition should take place within three years from the law coming into force and the size of the land has to be above a certain threshold that will be fixed by the state governments SHARECROPPERS CPM: Give compensation to all land dependants, including sharecroppers (bargadars), not just land holders and owners Centre: Tenants living off sharecrop above a certain period will get compensation. Modalities yet to be finalised POWER TO REVISE CPM: Impose an unequivocal restriction on lowering compensation and diluting rehabilitation as the bill empowers the government to amend the package Centre: Accepted. Only upward revisions will be allowed BROADBASE CPM: Apply consent provision to acquisitions under 13 other laws. Under these laws that largely deal with infrastructure and natural resources, the government can acquire land without taking consent Centre: Rejected. But compensation and rehabilitation as prescribed in the land bill will also be applicable to acquisitions under the 13 laws CONSENT CPM, Trinamul: 100 per cent consent needed, not 80 per cent for private industry, 70 per cent for public-private partnership and nil for government projects as the bill proposes Centre: Rejected. But the central land law will set only the minimum benchmark. State governments are free to have their own law on acquisition by improving on any parameters COMPENSATION CPM: Compensation should be three times the market value in urban areas and six times in rural belts, not twice the value in urban areas and twice to four times in rural areas as the bill proposes Centre: Rejected. But states are free to enhance the rates. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130419/jsp/frontpage/story_16803235.jsp#.UXFUajeIlgg