Land Acquisition, Rehab, Resettlement Act (LARR) 2013

1.  Land acquisition refers to the process by which government forcibly acquires private property for public purpose. In India Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (1894 Act) governs all such acquisitions. Additionally,there are 16 Acts with provisions foracquisition of land in specific sectors such as railways, special economic zones, national highways , etc. The 1894 Act does not provide for rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) for those affected by land acquisition. Currently, the R&R process is governed by the National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007.

why was this law enacted?

1. Land Acquisition means government/private company purchasing private land for “public purpose“.
2. But, under the British-era Land acquisition act of 1894, the term “public purpose” was ambiguous and open to executive-discretion. So, poor peoples’ land was acquired at throwaway prices in pretext of development projects.
3. Sometimes such projects never started, and the same cheap land was resold at higher price to real estate developers, without building anything for “public purpose”.
4. With this tactic politicians, their sons-in-law and bureaucrats made billions out of thin air. LARR act-2013 tried to fix this problem.

Features  of Land Acquisition, Rehab, Resettlement Act (LARR) 2013

The Bill specifies provisions for land acquisition as well as R&R Some of the major changes from the current provisions are related to folowing dimentions of land Acquisition.

1. The process of land acquisition 
2. Rights of the people displaced by the acquisition
3.  method of calculating compensation
4. Requirement of R&R for all acquisitions.

and this act made all acquisitions require rehabilitation and resettlement to be provided to the people affected by the acquisition.

The process for land acquisition

• Involves a Social Impact Assessment survey
• Preliminary notification stating the intent for acquisition
•  a declaration of acquisition, 
• compensation to be given by a certain time.  

    Compensation for the owners  -  four times the market value in case of rural areas and twice in case of urban areas.
    acquisition for private companies or public private partnerships -  consent of 80 per cent of the affected peoplerequired. But in the case of PSUs no such consent is required.

Purchase of large pieces of land by private companies will require provision of rehabilitation and resettlement.

The provisions of this Bill shall not apply to acquisitions under 16 existing legislations including the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005, the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, the Railways Act, 1989, etc.

Since every acquisition need a Social Impact Assesment and requirement consent from  minimun threshold may delay the implementation of any projects government.

Other Issues 

The calculation of market values is based on the transactions which are reported recently.
This value is doubled in rural areas to arrive at the compensation amount and this method may not lead to an accurate adjustment for the possible underreporting of prices in land transactions.

The government can temporarily acquire land for a maximum period of three years.  There is no provision for rehabilitation and resettlement in such cases.

Comparision between 1894 act and LARR act 2013

Colonial Act 1894	LARR Act 2013
The term “public purpose” was ambiguous and open to Government’s discretion	Clearly defines various types of “public purpose” projects for which, Government can acquire private land
They were given no voice in decision making.	For private project, 80% affected families must agree. For PPP project, 70% affected families must agree.Only then land can be acquired.
They were given no voice in decision making.	Under Social impact assessment (SIA) even need to obtain consent of the affected artisans, laborers, share-croppers, tenant farmers, fishermen, small traders, Desi-liquor den owners etc. whose (sustainable) livelihood will be affected because of the given project.
compensation - Government was free to decide how much money to pay while acquiring private land.	"Compensation proportion to market rates. 4 times the market rate in rural area. 2 times in urban area.Affected artisans, small traders, fishermen etc. will be given one-time payment, even if they don’t own any land."
fertile land - no restriction on land	"To ensure food security: Fertile, irrigated, multi-cropped farmland can be acquired only in last resort. If such fertile land is acquired, then Government will have to develop equal size of wasteland for agriculture purpose."
acqusition of land for private company - no guidence	"if Government acquires the lands for private company- the said private company will be responsible for relief and rehabilitation of the affected people. Additional rehab.package for SC/ST owners. Example- fishing rights over dam, 25% extra money if settled outside their native district and so on."
no despute mechanism	State Governments have to setup dispute settlement authorities. Chairman must be a district judge or lawyer for 7 years.
no accountability	Head of the department will be made responsible, for any offense or mischief played from Government’s side. (although this made the officers very cautious given the media-trials. They’d sit on the files instead of taking any action).
If project did not start, then acquired land was secretly sold/leased to private players at sky-high prices.	If project doesn’t start in 5 years, land has to be returned to the original owner.