Nearly 13 months ago on June 26, 2014, central government had convened a meeting of all state chief ministers where almost all of them had expressed serious reservations over the “Consent” and “Social Impact Assessment [SIA]” clauses in the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation & Resettlement [LARR] Act passed in 2013. They felt that these two clauses were major stumbling blocs in the way of acquiring land for development and infrastructure projects and pressed for necessary amendment in LARR [2013]. Modi – government which had taken charge only a month back [having got a resounding mandate to deliver on its development agenda] responded positively.
It came up with amendments to exempt 5 critical areas viz., defence, rural infrastructure [including electrification], affordable housing, industrial corridors and other infrastructure from the requirement of “Consent” and “SIA”. Further, to ensure that project implementation does not suffer, it mooted other amendments like returning land – in cases where the project take off gets delayed – in 5 years or a date as decided by project proponent ‘whichever is later’[under LARR, land has to be returned in 5 years].
Since, December, 2014 when an ordinance was promulgated to give effect to the amendments, the government has been making unstinted efforts to get these passed by the parliament. Yet, the very parties who had asked for these changes [albeit in the interest of promoting development] have now taken a U-turn. They are exploiting the minority status of ruling BJP in Rajya Sabha [RS] to kill Modi’s land bill (2015).
In the budget session, the government had set up a joint committee of both the houses viz., Lok Sabha [LS] and RS with a view to evolve a consensus and incorporate fruitful suggestions if any, to buttress interest of farmers. Ironically, all members of parties other than BJP have ganged up to vociferously oppose exemption of the 5 areas from the requirement of “Consent” and “SIA”. They also want the provision of land return in 5 years to remain.
If, their views get incorporated in the recommendations of joint committee, Modi’s land bill [2015] will look almost like LARR [2013]. All the efforts of last one year including re-promulgation of the ordinance 2 times, passage of bill in LS, consultations with public etc would have gone in to the dumps. This is reminiscent of an old adage “dug a mountain and got a mole hill”; in fact, it has not got even a mole hill.
Irrespective of whether the government pursues the land bill [2015] or dumps it [in that case, LARR (2013) will be operative], we will have on the statue 2 most attenuating clauses applicable to all projects without exception. Thus, even when land is required for any of 5 critical areas, the state will have to seek consent of 70% owners in case the project is in public sector and 80% for public-private- partnership [PPP] projects.
A multi-layered process of taking consent of each land owner is laid down in LARR [2013] which makes it tedious, cumbersome and time consuming. The requirement of SIA will aggravate the situation as all land owners would like to wait till study is completed. The study can go on for years as this would involve assessment of impact on all affected families even as NGOs [non-government organizations], research institutions/universities besides administrative bodies are unavoidably roped in the exercise.
It will take a minimum of 5 years for acquisition process to get consummated even if everything proceeds smoothly. On the other hand, if hurdles come in the way, it could take much longer. But, the big worry is the 70%/80% benchmark which is pretty tough. A shortfall of even one owner [one can easily visualize vested interest groups inducing him not to give consent under a quid pro quo arrangement] is good enough to stonewall the acquisition.
With multitude of factors coming in to play especially when big size projects are taken up for implementation, some delay is unavoidable even when everything is worked as per plan following a tight schedule. In this backdrop, the requirement to return land at the end of 5 years from date of acquisition could prove to be suicidal. No project proponent will be able to freely execute the project if this Damocles sword hangs on his neck!
In a nutshell, we will have a situation whereby, it would be well nigh impossible to acquire land despite the promise of handsome compensation amount [4 times and 2 times the market value in rural and urban areas respectively], attractive rehabilitation and resettlement packages and assurance of job for a member of affected family in the project [this provision has been made in land bill (2015), though not provided for in LARR (2013)].
Now, juxtapose the above grim scenario in regard to availability of land [a pre-requisite for any project] with Modi’s grandiose agenda for development, creating jobs and improving quality of living for millions of poor. This government has promised to build roads @ 30 km per day. It wants to build affordable houses for everyone [by 2022] and ensure uninterrupted power to every home [by 2019]. It wants to increase share of manufacturing in GDP [gross domestic product] to 25% in the next 10 years and for that the “Make in India” mission must succeed.
The government has ambitious plans to build smart cities, expand rail network, put up industrial corridors, build airports, seaports etc. To help farmers increase agricultural production and fetch remunerative prices for his produce, irrigation facilities, power transmission lines, rural roads, warehouses, marketing platforms/mandis etc will have to be built at the desired speed. The social infrastructure viz., schools/colleges, hospitals, toilets etc will also need commensurate attention.
All of the above is urgently needed to catapult Indian economy to a high growth trajectory of 10% plus per annum and to provide jobs to swelling workforce [every year, over 10 million youth join apart from the huge backlog of millions already unemployed]. In the absence of required land being available, all the aforementioned development plans will come to a grinding halt leading to disillusionment and frustration among youth and poor.
It is often said that government should first draw on available land pool including land already acquired from farmers but still lying unused. There can be no two opinions on this. But, when country needs all round development requiring land for setting up projects in every nook and corner, it would be imprudent to depend on land pool alone [which is available only in certain areas/pockets].
If, people of India want development and jobs which Modi has promised to deliver, we must have a law that ensures availability of requisite land in a hassle free manner even while fully safeguarding interests of land owners/farmers. Modi’s land bill [2015] – the version already passed by LS – meets both these requirements and people need to extend support to ensure that this gets converted in to law. On his part, Modi will need to make some strategic moves to wriggle out of bill as it comes from the joint committee – a look alike of LARR [2015] – as sticking to it would tantamount to the government itself imparting a big blow to its development agenda.