Working Paper No. 361 Land use and Land Acquisition

Important provisions in the Act relate to the steep enhancement of the scale of compensation to land-owners and other project affected persons, the requirement of consent of land-owners for acquisition on behalf of private companies and public-private-partnerships, the need to undertake a social impact assessment of the project for which the acquisition is being undertaken and limits on acquiring. [...] The objective of this paper is to analyse the evolution of the land acquisition law in the country and evaluate the impact that the LARR Act, 2013, will have on the evolution of land use in the country and the difference that it will make to the processes of industrialisation, urbanisation and modernisation of infrastructure. [...] The aim of the legislation was far-reaching in that it sought to redress the imbalance inherent in the procedures laid down in the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, between the interest of individual landholders and the authority of the government acquiring land for a public purpose. [...] If in India industrial units have to pay the price of land allocated to them in industrial parks, national manufacturing zones or industrial corridors on the basis of the cost of acquisition of land by the government, including the compensation paid to the “interested persons” and the amount spent on the resettlement and rehabilitation of such persons as required by the new land acquisition laws,. [...] Besides, the provision in the Second Schedule to the Act that in 13 urbanisation projects 20 per cent of the developed land will be reserved for allocation to land owners (on payment of the cost of land acquisition and the cost of development) in proportion to the land acquired is expected to facilitate acquisition.