Land acquisition Act: NAC writ does not run

A major blow was delivered to the National Advisory Council’s capacity to intervene in decisionmaking by the government with the Ministry of Rural development sticking to the formulation that if a private company wants to set up industry, it must buy 70 per cent of the land itself. All that the state government will do is buy for the investor, 30 per cent of the land, that too only if there are problems of contiguity.

The NAC’s suggestion that compensation to the tune of six times the registered land deed has also been overlooked by the ministry that has sent a draft version of the law to the Law ministry for legal vetting.

The Bill recommends that 60 per cent of the land value be given as solatium to the owner whose land is being acquired for development projects.However, the government draft states that the land value be assessed on the basis of the sixth notice issued by the competent authority for land acquisition as against the prevalent practice of deciding the value on the basis of the fourth notice.

"We have proposed that land value be calculated on the basis of the rate prevalent at the time the sixth notice for land acquisition is issued," an official said.

The fourth notice would only make known the government's intent to acquire land in a given area.