A rally in the national capital on April 19 against the Narendra Modi government’s land acquisition policy may turn out to be the first public appearance of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi after his expected return around mid-April from a two-month long >sabbatical at an undisclosed location abroad.
During his absence, party president Sonia Gandhi >mobilised public opinion and united the opposition against changes made by the Modi government to the 2013 land acquisition law, particularly the dilution of the provision that mandated farmers’ consent ahead of land takeover.
Mr. Gandhi had cut his teeth in agitation politics in 2011 by protesting against forcible land acquisition, and the party is hoping that there is a public mood against the dilution of the law that it can ride on.
“We hope Rahulji will be there,” a senior party functionary said.
The caution is understandable: senior party leaders were taken by surprise when, on the opening day of the Budget Session of Parliament, they learnt that Mr. Gandhi had gone abroad to “introspect” on the state of the Congress, thus missing the entire first segment.
“Every senior leader will take part,” said Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh, when asked whether Mr. Gandhi’s participation was confirmed.
Here are the six important facts you need to know about the Land Bill. Source: prsindia.org
| 1 | The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 seeks to Amend the Act of 2013 (LARR Act, 2013). |
| 2 | The Bill creates five special categories of land use: 1. defence, 2. rural infrastructure, 3. affordable housing, 4. industrial corridors, and 5. infrastructure projects including Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects where the central government owns the land |
| 3 | The Bill exempts the five categories from provisions of the LARR Act, 2013 which requires the consent of 80 per cent of land ownersto be obtained for private projects and that of 70 per cent of land owners for PPP projects. |
| 4 | The Bill allows exemption for projects in these five categories from requiring Social Impact Assessment be done to identify those affected and from the restrictions on the acquisition of irrigated multi-cropped land imposed by LARR Act 2013. |
| 5 | The Bill brings provisions for compensation, rehabilitation, and resettlement under other related Acts such as the National Highways Act and the Railways Act in consonance with the LARR Act. |
| 6 | The Bill changes acquisition of land for private companies mentioned in LARR Act, 2013 to acquisition for ‘private entities’. A private entity could include companies, corporations and nonprofit organisations. |
