Land Acquisition Act: New relief board to work out the R & R plan to be formed soon
The land act has been in muddy waters ever since it was passed by the erstwhile UPA government. The Centre led by the NDA government is likely to set up a specialized agency to chart the resettlement and rehabilitation plan for families displaced by land acquisition.
The agency, tentatively called the `R&R Board’, will take care of all the cases of acquisition as against the present system. The present system entails the district collector to appoint an `administrator’ in every district to work out the R&R plan where land is taken over.
The board may be an all-powerful body with the mandate to hammer out the resettlement plan for the displaced. The final prints of the guidelines are being worked on and this board is expected to safeguard the interests of the families displaced by land acquisition.
This board may also be given the authority to decide if an acquisition requires Social Impact Assessment. Presently this assessment is a mandatory process to determine the cost and rationale of the acquisition. Importantly, all linear projects like ports, railways etc. may be exempted from the ambit of the land acquisition law. In the last 2 quarters many infrastructure projects were stalled as there was an acute shortage of land to execute those projects.
The Centre may, however, retain the provision that no land can be put to use until R&R has been settled.
Source- The Times of India
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