SEZ rows may get special umpires

AMITI SEN & SUBHASH NARAYAN

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, MAY 05, 2007 02:01:53 AM]

NEW DELHI: Civil courts may be barred from taking up cases related to
compensation disputes arising out of land acquisition for special
economic zones (SEZs) and other industrial and public purposes.
According to the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill 2007 drafted by the
rural development ministry, a Land Acquisition Compensation Disputes
Settlement Authority (LACDSA) will be created in place of courts in each
state to look into such disputes. For inter-state projects, a similar
inter-state authority has been proposed.

The draft Bill also seeks to bar state governments from acquiring land
for private players by proposing that part VII of the existing Act
dealing with acquisition for companies should be omitted. The proposal
holds significance as the empowered group of ministers (eGoM) on SEZs
had recently barred the state governments from acquiring land for
private developers only for SEZ projects. It may be noted that there
were protests not only against land acquisition by the West Bengal
government for the Nandigram SEZ but also against the Tata's Singur
project, which was a non-SEZ.

The feasibility of the proposals will be examined in details by the
group of ministers on the relief and rehabilitation (R&R) policy to be
constituted soon. The PMO wants to seek the opinion of the GoM on the
entire revised policy drafted by the rural development ministry. The R&R
policy, when approved by the government, will lay down all parameters
guiding land transactions including benchmark prices and compensation to
oustees.

Laying down that land could be acquired by the government only for
public purposes, the amendment Bill defines public purpose narrowly to
include strategic purposes related to defence and any other work vital
to the state and public infrastructure such as electricity,
communication, mining, water supply and public facilities. For private
project related acquisitions, the onus would be on the companies to
acquire land directly.

However, an official source said that the new Act would allow some
flexibility to the state to acquire land for projects where about 90% of
land has already been purchased by the private developer. The draft
policy has also proposed that rehabilitation grant should be given to
displaced persons only in lieu of land or job. The proposed formula
calls for the acquirer to pay an average of the 'higher prices' paid in
50% of the land sold in the area in the previous three years. The
average pricing will be determined from land previously acquired for
industrial use

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