Mamta Govt to not acquire land till Lok Sabha elections
The Mamata Banerjee government will not acquire any land from farmers for the next couple of months from now, even if it is required for government projects. The message has already been conveyed to the government departments after the chief minister’s press meet with Anna Hazare in New Delhi. The Trinamool chief plans to champion the cause of farmers as she did earlier. All infrastructure projects in Bengal will therefore, have to wait till the Lok Sabha polls are over.
The Chief Minister doesn’t want any land controversy before the elections. State departments have been asked to put any proposals for land acquisition on hold for the time being. This even after the government has acquired land for several irrigation projects and those for Aila victims after the Trinamool chief came to power.
The Government says that there is no need for land acquisition in the next couple of months, on being questioned as to why the state government will not acquire land2 when the Centre’s Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 is in place. The central Act has given exemption to as many as 11 other central Acts under which land can be acquired for government projects.
A state official was quoted as saying, “No land acquisition proposal will be placed in the cabinet now till the procedures of the new land acquisition act are finalized and declared. It, however, has not been clarified by the Central Act whether the other land acquisition acts in Bengal empower the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation or the West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation to acquire land.
The new central Act that applies to land acquisition, compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement, will work on any appropriate government, which needs to acquire land for its own use, hold and control, including the public sector undertakings and for public purpose. It will apply to infrastructure projects related to sports, tourism, healthcare, transportation, including projects for industrial corridors, mining activities, agro processing, warehouse and cold storage facilities, marketing infrastructure for agriculture and allied activities like dairy that are owned or set up by the government or by the farmers’ cooperative or by an institution that has been set up under a statute. The Act will also apply to public-private-partnership (PPP) projects, where the ownership of the land continues to vest with the government.
Much before the promulgation of the Central Act, the Mamata Banerjee government announced a hands-off policy on land acquisition. Under the purview of this act, the investors need to assure by way of an affidavit that they won’t purchase land forcibly from farmers. The act also entitles the government the right to cancel the project if it comes to know that land has been forcibly taken by the investor.
Source: The Times of India
Anna Hazare, Chief minister, Infrastructure projects, land controversy, Lok Sabha elections, Mamata Banerjee, Mamata Banerjee government, PPP, Public-private partnership, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013, Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Trinamool
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