Rehabilitation policy for SEZ-displaced likely to get delayed

RURAL ECONOMY

Rehabilitation policy for SEZ-displaced likely to get delayed

Posted online: Monday, May 07, 2007 at 0000 hours IST

NEW DELHI, MAY 6: The much-awaited policy for mandatory rehabilitation
of land owners displaced by industrial projects and SEZs might get
delayed with the matter being referred to a group of ministers (GoM).
The Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy has been drafted by the rural
development ministry in the backdrop of protests in Nandigram and Singur
in West Bengal and Raigad in Maharashtra.

While rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had hoped that
an early clearance from the law ministry would pave the way for the
policy to be sent to the Cabinet for approval, the decision to refer the
matter to a GoM might put a brake on its passage in the ongoing
Parliament session.

The law ministry is understood to have completed the final draft of the
rehabilitation package which comprises an amended Land Acquisition Act,
a rehabilitation policy and a rehabilitation law.

The GoM is expected to look into several critical aspects of the issue
like having an independent arrangement for out of court settlement of
small issues involved in land acquisition or having an independent
tribunal to deal with such cases.

It will also look into the proportion of land which the government can
acquire for setting up industrial projects.

After the protests, an empowered GoM on SEZs headed by external affairs
minister Pranab Mukherjee put a end to compulsory land acquisition for
these zones and also fixed a limit of 5,000 hectares on their size.
Changes in land acquisition laws are expected to put an end to
compulsory land acquisition for industrial projects.

—PTI

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