Land acquisition Act rules may get Cabinet nod today

The State government will soon notify rules and regulations for the new Central land acquisition act which has increased the compensation to be paid to land losers.

A Cabinet sub-committee under the chairmanship of Revenue Minister V Sreenivas Prasad is likely to approve the rules on Friday, being framed for implementing the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

The Act, in force since January 1, 2014, will see its first implementation in Karnataka, Prasad said. Maharashtra has tried to implement the Act partially.

“The sub-committee is likely to approve the rules and regulations on Friday morning. We will submit them to the Cabinet meeting, scheduled for the evening, for ratification,” said Prasad.

As per the framed rules and regulations, the State government will provide four times the market value of land in the rural areas and two times the market value in urban pockets while acquiring land for projects.

Consensus of citizens

The rules suggest that for public projects like road widening or community projects, the government need not seek consensus of citizens and can directly pay them the solatium.

In cases of public private partnership projects, the rules suggest that the State needs to seek the consensus of 70 per cent of land losers before notifying the land and awarding compensation.

In purely private projects, where the government is acquiring land for setting up industries, there needs to be 80 per cent consensus among land losers to part with their properties.

The Revenue department has proposed to further decentralise access to Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crop Inspection (RTC).

The minister said that the department is planning to give the village accountants access to RTC files in the online database to provide relevant documents to farmers on the spot. The department is planning to provide laptops to all village accountants for the purpose.