Restriction on invoking emergency clause

The draft bill allows land acquisition using urgency clause only for national defence, security purposes, rehabilitation and resettlement purposes in the event of emergencies or natural calamities.

According to the new rehabilitation and resettlement provisions, “before taking possession of any land, the collector should tender payment of 80 per cent of the compensation” with “an additional compensation of 75 per cent of the market value  in respect of land and property.”

As per the existing  Land Acquisition Act —under urgency clause 17— states can acquire land in just 15 days notice without giving landowners right to hearing. Existing law allows acquiring land using urgency clause for creation of railway lines or stations, maintaining any structure, irrigation system, water supply, drainage, road communication or electricity as purposes for which this provision can be invoked.

There was a criticism that many states have acquired large tracts of agriculture lands invoking urgency clause and distributed it to real estate developers. In Uttar Pradesh, successive governments invoked urgency clause to acquire over 15,000 hectares of land in the Noida and Greater Noida area adjacent to Delhi in the last two decades and in which a large area of land was handed over to builders.