Land Bill

LARR (Amendment) Bill, 2015: Amendments proposed on March 9, 2015

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement

(Amendment) Bill, 2015 was introduced in Lok Sabha on February 24, 2015 to replace an Ordinance. The

following amendments were circulated by the government on March 9, 2015:

Change to public purpose

The Bill amends the Act to include acquisition of land for private hospitals and private educational

institutions within the definition of public purpose.

The amendments remove this provision of the Bill. This implies that acquisition of land for private hospitals

and private educational institutions is no longer included within the definition public purpose.

Changes to five categories of exempted projects:

The Bill allows the government to exempt five categories of projects from: (i) Social Impact Assessment,

(ii) limits on acquisition of irrigated multi-cropped land, through a notification, and (iii) consent provisions.

These five categories are: (i) defence, (ii) rural infrastructure, (iii) affordable housing, (iv) industrial

corridors, and (v) infrastructure and social infrastructure. The amendments make the following changes to

this provision:

Industrial corridors: The amendments clarify that land acquired for industrial corridors will be for

industrial corridors set up by the government and government undertakings. Further, land can be acquired

up to 1 km on both sides of the designated railway line or road of the industrial corridor.

Social infrastructure: The amendments remove social infrastructure as an exempted category.

Changes to SIA and limits on irrigated multi-cropped land:

The Bill allows the government to exempt the above five categories of projects from SIA and limits on

irrigated land, through a notification. The amendments add that before issuing this notification, the

government must ensure that the extent of land being acquired is in keeping with the minimum...