New Delhi, December 13
The Cabinet today cleared the controversial Land Acquisition Bill, making it mandatory to seek the consent of 80 per cent of affected landowners in case their land is acquired by private players.

The Bill also provides for assent by 70 per cent of affected landowners in case their land is acquired for a public-private partnership (PPP) project. But no consent will be needed if land is acquired by the government for infrastructure projects fully owned and executed by it. Another clause stipulates that if the land acquired remains unutilised for five years, the acquisition will lapse. The government intends to introduce the official amendments to the Bill in the ongoing winter session of the Lok Sabha.

In its original form, The Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill provided for consent of not just 80 per cent landowners but also of the dependent farm workers. But the clause was removed following protests from industrial and infrastructure lobbies after which the government constituted a Group of Ministers to again go into the controversial issues.

The GoM later suggested that the consent clause be kept at 67 per cent for both PPP and private projects.

But the proposal for seeking the consent of two-thirds of “land losers” (from whom land will be purchased) for industrial and PPP projects did not find favour with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

The Bill was finalised by the Rural Development Ministry after incorporating Sonia’s suggestion requiring the consent of 80 per cent landowners for acquisition.