New Delhi, September 4
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has suggested that the proposed land acquisition Act should apply to private companies only if they buy 500 acres or more, instead of the 100 acres as suggested in the draft Bill.

"The industry feels the threshold of 100 acres is very low for projects, especially in rural areas. This may only encourage smaller and fragmented holdings particularly in the mining sector. Hence, this threshold needs to be increased to at least 500 acres," FICCI said in a statement.

According to the Draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) Bill, 2011, its provisions will apply when private companies buy 100 acres of land or more on their own.

As per the draft Bill, farmers would be given a compensation of not less than twice the market value in urban areas. In rural areas, the same should be at least six times the market price.

The chamber also termed the need of consent of 80 per cent of the project-affected families as a tall order and said the percentage needs to lowered to 50.

It has also asked the government for flexibility in 'public purpose' clause in the light of investments becoming unviable due to policy induced changes.

In such a situation, if the 'public purpose' is to be kept intact, the same would be quite burdensome on the industry, FICCI said.

To take on the discontentment against land acquisition process, which has seen many protests, including the one at Bhatta-Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh, the Union Government is coming up with a new land Bill . — PTI