The NAC argued that only the Government should acquire entire plot of land required for any “public purposes”. It recommended that the “public purposes” should be defined as “acquisition necessary for strategic and infrastructural purposes and for social services, like education and health care.”
The panel in a meeting on Wednesday discussed the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007 and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2009, which were passed by the Lok Sabha on February 25, 2009. The twin Bills however could not be passed in the Rajya Sabha and eventually lapsed with the dissolution of the 14th Lok Sabha. The NAC recommended that the two proposed legislations should be merged into a single comprehensive law and re-titled as “National Development, Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Act”.
It also suggested that a National Commission should be set up to oversee all land acquisitions across the country as well as rehabilitation and resettlement measures.
“The consensus within the council is that if the private industry is allowed to get land directly from the landowners, there is a possibility that it would leave scopes for the land-mafias to exploit poor people, particularly in tribal areas,” Aruna Roy, a member of the NAC Working Group on Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement told Deccan Herald. “All land transfers for public purposes should come under the purview of the proposed law.”
