India: The Draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation & Resettlement Bill, 2011

Infrastructure across the country must expand rapidly. Industrialisation,  especially based on manufacturing has also to accelerate. Urbanisation is  inevitable. Land is an essential requirement for all these processes. Government also needs to acquire land for a variety of public purposes.

In every case, land acquisition must take place in a manner that fully protects the interests of land-owners and also of those whose livelihoods depend on the land being acquired. Under our Constitution, land is a State subject but land acquisition is a Concurrent subject. So far, the basic law governing the land acquisition process has been the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. Although it has been amended from time to time, it is painfully evident that the basic law has become archaic.

Land markets in India are imperfect. There is asymmetry of power (and information) between those wanting to acquire the land and those whose lands are being acquired.  That is why there has to be a role for the government to put in place a transparent and flexible set of rules and regulations and to ensure its enforcement. Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) need to be seen necessarily as two sides of the same coin. R&R must always, in each instance, necessarily follow upon acquisition of land.  Not combining the two – R&R and land acquisition – within one law, risks neglect of R&R. 

This has, indeed, been the experience thus far. This draft Bill seeks to balance the need for facilitating land acquisition for various public purposes including infrastructure development, industrialisation and urbanisation, while at the same time meaningfully addressing the concerns of farmers and those whose livelihoods are dependent on the land being acquired.

The issue of who acquires land is less important than the process of land acquisition, compensation for land acquired and the R&R process, package and conditions. This draft Bill specifies these irrespective of the ratios of private and government acquisition. The objective is to make the process of land acquisition easy, transparent and fair for both sides 

in each instance.