Irrigation Dept acquires most land in state

Nearly 8-900,000 hectares would be acquired for irrigation projects

Maximum land acquisition was done by the Irrigation Department and it accounts for 60 per cent of the land acquisition done by the Karnataka government.

Kapil Mohan, Water Resource Department Principal Secretary, revealed this in Mysore on August 6 and said the new Land Acquisition Act had come into force from this year replacing the old act of 1898.

Compared to the old act, the new act was a better one and it provided for more compensation to the land owners. The new act considered the environmental impact, resettlement and rehabilitation of land losers, besides land value. Hence, the compensation would be more. The act being more transparent, it would benefit farmers. Loopholes that lead to litigations in the previous act would be plugged leading to overcoming of litigation problems, he said.

Inaugurating a two-day workshop for senior engineers on the ‘New Legislation on Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (Right to fair compensation and transparency)’, organised jointly by the Cauvery Neeravari Nigama Ltd. and Administrative Staff College of Hyderabad at the Vidyavardhaka Engineering College,  Kapil Mohan said nearly 8-900,000 hectares of land would be acquired for irrigation projects. Most of this would be in North Karnataka.

A separate commissioner would be appointed under the act to supervise land acquisition and rehabilitation. He would also address all problems of land acquisition.

In view of the new act coming into effect, he said it would be vital to complete the projects on time as otherwise the cost would escalate and benefits of the project would be reduced. Timely implementation would benefit farmers too. Hence, engineers should know the act thoroughly so that they can give information sought by the farmers.