Debate on land acquisition to spread

An intense debate over the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s efforts to legislate the ordinance passed by it to amend the previous government’s Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Settlement Act is expected to spread across the country due to opposition from all quarters. The Shiv Sena, an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Maharashtra, has said it is shocked by the government’s intention to bring in the ordinance and is all set to oppose it. Congress leaders at the national and state level have already hit the streets to oppose the bill. The NDA had used its executive powers in December 2014 to make it easier to acquire land in important areas of security and defence, infrastructure, power and affordable housing. The compensation aspects put in place by the previous Congress-led UPA government in the 2013 Act, however, remained unchanged. Godfrey Pimenta, an activist, says that an application filed under the RTI Act revealed that both central and state governments have failed miserably in implementing the National Rehabilitation & Resettlement Policy, 2007. The RTI inquiry filed during the UPA government “revealed that only two divisions of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) have granted full benefits and two divisions have granted partial benefits to the farmers whose lands were acquired by NHAI for the widening of all National Highways in the country.”