This refers to the report "Should the land acquisition law worry India Inc?" (September 19). The land acquisition law in India could not continue with a 150-year old-colonial Act. It has to recognise new realities such as democracy, rising population, smaller holdings and large-scale use change over the decades. Being economically weaker individuals the farmers need protection. However, the current legislation has overshot reasonable limits on several counts.
The social impact assessment can take much longer since there are few accredited agencies that can do a good job and won't get corrupted. Differentiating between private purchase and government acquisition is flawed since more erstwhile public sector activities are moving to the private sector. Clubbing land-owners with other project-affected people, while popular, is flawed in law. Getting 70 per cent or 80 per cent approval is a tough job, since the new law sets the minimum and not the maximum price. There should either be voluntary deals with a floor-price not lower than normative "circle rates" or compulsory acquisition at 2x or 4x of such normative prices. What was also overlooked is that India's urban population will grow at 3 per cent per annum and new towns, expansion of old ones must happen on a large scale and planned basis to stop the mushrooming of bastis and chawls.
P Datta Kolkata
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