Land acquisition: India
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SC: Lengthy land acquisition process breeds corruption
From the archives of The Times of India 2007, 2009
Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN
New Delhi: The woefully long land acquisition process, often marred by arbitrary exclusion and deletion of areas, breeds touts, middlemen and corruption, the Supreme Court has said and asked the government — “Can a large number of citizens be not spared of this traumatic experience?”
The case in hand was Bangalore Development Authority’s controversial ‘Arkavarthi Town or Layout’ in which a former CM and now a cabinet minister in the UPA was spared the blushes by the division bench of the High Court. The division bench had not only upheld the Layout scheme, but also expunged stinging remarks against the politician by the single-judge bench, which had set aside the land acquisition proceedings.
Though the apex court upheld the scheme after giving it a tweak here and there and providing better compensation, a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices R V Raveendran and D K Jain did find evidence that there were degrees of arbitrariness in acquisition. It said the manner in which the village lands were included and then deleted from the notification waxed the view that there was no proper survey or application of mind while formulating the Arkavarthy development scheme.
“If large areas are notified and then large extents are to be deleted, it breeds corruption and nepotism among officials,” said the Bench, adding it also created hostility, mutual distrust and disharmony among the villagers, dividing them on the lines of ‘those who can influence and get their lands deleted’ and ‘those who cannot’. “Touts and middlemen flaunting political connections flourish, extracting money for getting lands deleted from acquisition notification. Why subject a large number of citizens to such traumatic experience? Why not plan properly before embarking upon acquisition process,” asked Justice Raveendran, who authored the judgment for the bench.
Properties of defence personnel
The Times of India Feb 16 2015
A Subramani
Court orders return of 7.83 acres in Chennai
Govt can't acquire properties of freedom fighters:HC
Ruling that moveable and immoveable properties held by freedom fighters and defence personnel should never be acquired by government for any purpose, the Madras high court has ordered return of 7.83 acres of land, worth several crores now, at Maraimalai Nagar, near chengalpet, to children of a freedom fighter. “Could the selfless sacrifices of such stalwarts as Mahatma Gandhi and others get obliterated overnight by a simple piece of unconsidered land acquisition? Freedom fighters, defence personnel and their family members are shouldering the security of 125 crore-strong population of India. Therefore, their assets -moveable and immoveable properties -should not be disturbed at any cost,“ said Justice C S Karnan in an order.
Freedom fighter Subbiah was among five beneficiaries for whom 50 acres of land was allotted a year after Independence. As his share Subbiah got 7.83 acres by a 1948 order which de-reserved a portion of reserved forests at Kattankulathur near Maraimalai Nagar. Subbiah died in 1973. In 1974, the lands were acquired for the Maraimalai Nagar neighbourhood scheme, which envisaged developing residential plots to house about 1 lakh people.
Fourteen years later, in 1986, a compensation of `2.68 lakh for the acquired land was announced, and deposited in a civil court as the sum could not be apportioned among the four children of Subbiah. Till date the family has not received any compensation, his son S Balasubramaniam said. After many rounds of litigation and contempt proceedings, he filed a petition in the HC saying the acquired land was still under their physical possession and that even 29 years after acquisition the land remained vacant. Lands acquired for residential purposes had been used for industrial and commercial purposes, as is evident from the fact that a car company had been allotted some portions, he said. CMDA counsel, however, claimed that copies of several communications furnished in court were bogus and said the petitioners were trying to mislead the court. He said CMDA was in possession of the land and that vacant lands were meant for public facilities such as parks and power poles.
Rejecting the submissions, Justice Karnan said the order of acquisition could not be sustained because it had come against a 1948 order of allotment. Neighbourhood schemes are not of more paramount importance than freedom fighters, he said, adding that the family of Subbiah was cultivating the land for the last 66 years. “It will be extremely painful to dislodge them at this juncture,“ he said.
The judge also pointed the acquired properties had been utilized for industrial and commercial purposes “which is against the purpose for which the land had been originally acquired.“ He then directed CMDA and other authorities to reconvey the lands to the blood relatives of the freedom fighter within two months.
Land acquisition laws in the states
The Times of India, Jul 17 2015
In their land, states have own rules
States are devising their own plans for acquiring land for infrastructure and other critical projects as they wait for the logjam over the controversial Land Bill at the Centre to be resolved.While some states have demanded that they be given the freedom to formulate their own land acquisition law, a clutch of states have pressed ahead with their own plans. UP for example has ac quired more than 3,000ha of fertile land for its expressway without a murmur of dissent.At the same time, in West Bengal the land procurement price is five times of the market rate. The land owner also has the right to say no.
“We've a model land policy whereby there's no forcible land acquisition. It includes negotiation over land price, direct purchase of land by investor and rehabilitation of the land loser,“ CM Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday .
When UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority set out to acquire land for the expressway , the state government decided to avoid the contentious “acquisition“ process almost entirely .“It was decided to purchase land through a mutual agreement. Land owners were offered four times the circle rates in rural areas, and twice the rates in urban parts,“ said Navneet Sehgal, chief executive, UPEIDA.
Maharashtra changed its rules for a substantial hike in the compensation value for land which now attracts compensation ranging from 2.5 to five times its market value. Claiming the most balanced land acquisition policy in the country , Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal urged the Centre to take a cue. Land is acquired with “consent of owners“ and farmers are paid market price plus displacement allowance in Punjab.Neighbouring Haryana's policy lays down a minimum floor rate. A farmer offering an acre for acquisition gets anything between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 32 lakh, depending on the area.Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das on Wednesday informed the PM that Jharkhand has already framed its regulations.Congress-ruled Assam opposes the central land acquisition bill and plans to draft a separate new land acquisition Bill for the state.
Rajasthan was among the first few states that initiated to frame its own land acquisition Act. It proposed scrapping of some key measures, notably those requiring consent of landowners. Goa has adopted the new land acquisition act.
Maharashtra, 2015
The Times of India, Jun 29 2015
Priyanka Kakodkar
Maha eases farm land rules for industry
As part of its Make in Maharashtra push for business, the state government has further eased the rules for industrial expansion on agricultural land. In addition to hiking building rights on farm land, the government has also dropped the requirement to convert agricultural land to non-agricultural use. Officials say the move will cut the red tape around industrial growth on the outskirts of cities, especially for the small and medium scale sector. “The conversion of land use was a process which would take up to two years,“ points out industries secretary Apurva Chandra.
Since the mid-1990s, com panies have been allowed to set up industrial units on agricultural land after informing the collector. However, since farm land is classified as a no development zone, they were given minimal building rights with FSI of up to 0.2. If industries sought to build more, they needed the permission of the urban development department to convert the land into a non-agricultural zone. “Industries no longer need to approach the state government for a zone change. To avail of the additional space, they just need to pay the premium fee to the collector. This is a major delegation of responsibility from the state to the collectors,“ said urban development secretary Nitin Kareer.
The state government, in a notification earlier this month, had allowed industries nine times the earlier build ing rights on agricultural land. To exploit this additional space, they merely need to pay a fee worth 30% of the land rate to the district collector.
However, critics warn that dropping the zonechange clearance will remove a crucial level of scrutiny and could pave the way for the reckless expansion of industry on farm land. “The zone change requirement was put in place to prevent fertile agricultural land from being diverted. How will the state ensure that industry does not come up on fertile land?“ asks Debi Goenka from the Conservation Action Trust. Housing activist Chandrashekhar Prabhu warned that industries could pay to acquire additional building rights on farm land and then fail to use it. “This could result in speculation.How will the state ensure that the land is actually used to set up industry?“ he asks.
The same benefits also apply to public educational and medical institutes as well as highway amenities coming up on farm land. These were also granted additional building rights on farm land earlier this month. The new rules will apply to areas including the Mumbai metropolitan region, Pune, Nagpur, Sangli, Kolhapur, Nasik, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Ratnagiri and Raigad. Also, Jalgaon, Amravati and Chandrapur.
