Rajya Sabha to vote on Land Acquisition Bill today

The Land Acquisition Bill, which has been renamed as "The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012" will come up in the Rajya Sabha for debate and voting today.

The Bill is in continuation of the UPA Government's commitment to enacting rights based legislation with the objective of empowering the common man.

Seeking to correct the wrongs of its predecessor the Land Acquisition Act 1894, it rests on three main pillars: consent (through a well-defined and a comprehensive process), compensation and rehabilitation/ resettlement. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last week with 216 votes in favour and 19 against it.

Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh assured the Lower House before the passage of the Bill that the measure allowed enough room for State governments to implement it as per their requirements.

The Bill also introduces a number of unprecedented and far reaching safeguards to protect an individual's right to his or her personal property from arbitrary and indiscriminate acquisition.

The new Bill proposes that farmers and landowners be paid up to four times the market value for land acquired in rural areas, and two times the market value in urban areas.

The other significant aspect of the Bill is that the consent of 80% of land owners is needed for acquiring land for private projects and of 70% landowners for public-private projects.

Public purpose as per the Bill includes sectors like mining, infrastructure, defence, manufacturing zones, ports, roads, and railways built by the government and public sector enterprises.