House panel against exemption to 16 Central Acts

The Parliamentary Standing Committee examining the Land Acquisition,Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill,2011

The Parliamentary Standing Committee examining the Land Acquisition,Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill,2011 (LARR Bill) is likely to come down strongly against Clause 98 that seeks to exempt 16 separate specific Central Acts that account for about 95 per cent of land acquisition for the Central government.

The Committee strongly recommends that there is no need to exempt any of these Central Acts from the purview of the LARR Bill and Fourth Schedule be dispensed with, reads the draft report that has been considered for adoption,sources said. The Bill seeks to repeal and replace the Land Acquisition Act,1894 and aims to establish the law on land acquisition,as well as the rehabilitation and resettlement of those directly affected by acquisition.

The Committee is learnt to have arrived at this recommendation after the Railway Ministry,headed by Trinamools Mukul Roy,expressed its reservations against the exemptions citing that there is no provision relating to rehabilitation and resettlement in the 16 Central Acts,which included the Railways Act,1989 as well.

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The Railway Ministry was learnt to have got support from A K Antony-led Defence Ministry which,in fact,was learnt to have offered to withdraw the Cantonment Act,2006 and the Works of Defence Act,1903 from the list of the Central Acts exempted from the provisions of the Bill.

Section 98 also faced criticisms from the UP government,which was led by Mayawati at that time,and Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government in MP who termed these provisions as discriminatory where the Central government gets protection for its land acquisition while state governments get no similar protection for their specific laws.

Though the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways as well as Coal has come out in support of these provisions and sought more protection against the imposition of LARR Bill on their specific laws,the positions taken by the ministries of Railway and Defence along with the UP and MP governments is learnt to have won the day.

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