Now, companies have to acquire land on their own

Companies proposing to set up new industrial projects in the country would have to acquire at least 70 per cent of the land needed for the project on their own, according to the draft Bill seeking amendment to the Land Acquisition Act of 1894.

This is contrary to the usual practice of land acquisition in the country where the government agencies acquire land and transfer it to the corporate houses for their projects.

“The draft Bill of the proposed Land Acquisition (Amendment) Act says that the government can acquire a maximum of 30 per cent of the land area needed for a project. The government agencies will intervene in the land acquisition process in case of land acquisition in scheduled areas or acquisition of fragmented land holdings”, said SM Jamdar, rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) expert and managing director, Karnataka Power Corporation.

Moreover, the draft Bill says that the land would have to be returned to the land losers if a company does not utilise the land within a period of five years after acquisition, he added.

He admitted that the acquisition of land by the companies on their own is a debatable issue considering the land acquisition in scheduled areas and also acquisition of fragmented plots of land.

Jamdar, however, pointed out the industries need to evolve ways and means of dealing with the displaced persons for acquiring land on their own.

“There is a communication gap between the industrial houses and the people to be displaced by their projects. The corporates need to reach out to the affected people and ensure that they deliver on all the promised R&R activities for these people”, he said.

Jamdar was addressing the delegates at the 13th International Conference on Clean, Green and Sustainable Technologies in Iron and Steel Making held in the city,

On R&R issues, he said that R&R has to be a part of the project cost adding, “In most of the industries, the R&R cost is less than one per cent of the project cost and in some cases it is even a fraction of one per cent of the project cost.”

Jamdar felt that the R&R process should not be linked to be a company’s CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities as CSR was merely a brand building exercise.

Commenting on the R&R policy of the Orissa government, he said the Orissa government had a very progressive R&R policy but it lacked effective implementation.