SEZ-hit likely to get a better deal

GIRISH CHANDRA PRASAD & SOMA BANERJEE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2006 01:42:11 AM]

NEW DELHI: India’s transition to a global investment and manufacturing
hub will be marked by a humane face. The government’s proposed policy on
rehabilitation of project affected families will grant substantially
higher compensation packages to project affected persons.

This will have a bearing on how land is acquired en masse for SEZs and
the proposed mega petrochemical investment regions along the coastal
belt. The attractive features of the new scheme include higher land
compensation, preference for jobs and labour outsourcing contracts to
the displaced, equity in the new company for which land is acquired and
returning unused acquired land.

The scheme will be mandatory and will set the minimum standard while
state governments will have the freedom to give a better compensation.

As per the new scheme, for a house acquired by the government or the
developer, the owner will get compensation which is not less than any
housing programme of the union government instead of a fixed
compensation given now as per the 2003 rehabilitation scheme.

This means that any change in the housing schemes will also benefit the
displaced families. For a house shared by several nuclear families, the
compensation would include extra space for each of the nuclear families
over and above the land acquired. The new scheme would also provide
training and employment preference to one of the members of the
displaced family. It also offers preference to them for outsourcing
labour contracts.

The new policy would also try to compensate the land acquired with land.
In cases where land-for-land or employment could not be provided, in
addition to their compensation grant, 20% of it would be given in the
form of shares in the organisation for which land is acquired.

While the government and the developer would try to give new land to the
ousted as close to their original land, the actual cost of shifting will
be reimbursed as against a fixed allowance in the existing scheme.

As per the cabinet note moved by the rural development ministry, the
government will implement these in three steps.
An executive order under Article 73 of the Constitution will implement
all measures except land acquisition, while an amendment to the Land
Acquisition Act of 1894 and a separate new legislation will take care of
land acquisition and rehabilitation.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2154052.cms