Land Act changes to be business friendly
Rural development ministry has suggested a number of amendments to the Act that seeks to dilute pro-farmer provisions
New Delhi: Government is moving to water down certain provisions of the Land Acquisition Act to make it investor-friendly and has initiated consultations with political parties to evolve a consensus on the changes to be made in the farmer-friendly Law.
In a note sent to the PMO, the rural development ministry has suggested a number of amendments to the Act that seeks to dilute pro-farmer provisions like mandatory consent of at least 70 per cent locals for acquiring land for public private patnership (PPP) projects and 80 per cent for acquiring land for private projects.
The rural development ministry’s proposals also include dilution of a key clause of Social Impact Assessment study criticised by states as time consuming for industrialisation process.
“The Consent Clause (Section 2(2)) should be re-examined as ownership of land vests with the Government in PPP projects. The consent clause should be removed from public private patnership projects. Alternatively, consent requirement may be brought down to 50 per cent,” the ministry said.
It says that “mandatory Social Impact Assessment study should be done away with. SIA should be confined to large projects/PPP Projects as it may delay acquisition process.”