Land Acquisition Act, 1894 & LAAR Act, 2013 CASE EXAMPLE –TEHRI DAM

1. Land Acquisition Act 1894
PRESENTED BY :
AARUSHI RAWAT (A-16)
AYUSHI YADAV (A-14)
NIDHI (B-21)

2. History
• The Land Acquisition Act, 1894 is a law in India and Pakistan
that allows the government to acquire private land in those
countries.
• Acquisition of land for some public purpose by a government
agency from individual landowners, as authorized by the law, after
paying a government-fixed compensation to cover losses incurred by
landowners from surrendering their land to the concerned
government agency.Purpose
• Developed as a legislation to acquire land mainly for the developing
the railways network.
• Indian government accepted the Bill with a few minor amendments in
its indigenous form.

3. Land Acquisition
Land acquisition in India refers to the process by which the union or
a state government in India acquires private land for the purpose
of industrialization, development of infrastructural facilities or
urbanization of the private land, and provides compensation to the
affected land owners and their rehabilitation and resettlement.
 Eminent Domain (US)
 Compulsory Purchase (United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland)
 Resumption (Hong Kong)
 Compulsory Acquisition (Australia)
 Expropriation (South Africa, Canada)

4. History
1894
• Land Acquisition Act, 1894 created by the British.
1947
• Independent India choose to continue this Act even after independence.
2013
• UPA Government replaced this Act with The Right to Fair Compensation
&Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation & Resettlement Act .
2015
• Modi Government wants to make some further amendments to the Bill.

5. OBJECTIVE
 To provide a law which will enable the State to acquire the land of others for
public purposes and for companies.
 Act also states provisions relating to taking over of possession and payment of
compensation whose land is acquired.
 Provisions of the Act relating to acquisition of Land are substantive and those
related to taking over of possession and payment of compensation are subsidiary.

6. WHENAPPLICABLE/ REQUIRED
 Whenever, it appears to the Government that the land is required for
a) Public Purpose, or
b) Company.
 Company means Company as defined under Section 3 of the
Companies Act, 1956 (except the Government Companies) and includes
a society and Cooperative
society registered under relevant law.

7. WHENAPPLICABLE/ REQUIRED
 Public Purpose defined under Section 3 (f) of this Act, means which is
in interest of public at large such as:
 town or rural planning
 Corporation owned or controlled by State
 Residential purpose to accommodate people affected by any scheme of
the government, or natural calamity, or who are poor and landless.
 This is an inclusive list and not exclusive.

8. Preliminary Notification
Survey and Analysis
Objections to Collector
Hearing and Report
Declaration of Requirement
Acquisition of Award
Possession
PROCESSOFREQUISITION

9. DRAWBACKS OF 1894 ACT
 The term “public purpose” was ambiguous and open to Government’s
discretion
 Land could be acquired forcibly.
 They were given no voice in decision making.
 Government was free to decide how much money to pay while acquiring
private land.
 No such restrictions on fertile land
 If project did not start, then acquired land was secretly sold/leased to private
players at sky-high prices.

10. Five Special Sectors mentioned
• Defence.
• Rural Infrastructure.
• Affordable housing.
• Industrial corridors.(amended finally)
• Infrastructure projects including PPP projects
where Central government owns the
land.(amended finally)

11. Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and
Resettlement Bill (LARR) Act, 2013

12. SALIENT FEATURES OF LARR – 2013
 Social impact assessment (SIA) even need to obtain consent of the affected
people, labourers, share-croppers, tenant farmers, fishermen, small traders, etc.
whose (sustainable) livelihood will be affected because of the given project.
 Compensation proportion to market rates.
4 times the market rate in rural area.
2 times in urban area.
Affected artisans, small traders, fishermen etc. will be given one-time payment,
even
if they don’t own any land.
 If project doesn’t start in 5 years, land has to be returned to the original owner.

13. To ensure food security:
1. Fertile, irrigated, multi-cropped farmland can be acquired only in last resort.
2. If such fertile land is acquired, then Government will have to develop equal size
of wasteland for agriculture purpose.
 Clearly defines various types of “public purpose” projects for which,
Government can acquire private land.
 Land Acquire only when
o For private project, 80% affected families must agree.
o For PPP project, 70% affected families must agree.

14. ACQUISITION
Govt.
Acquires For
Own Use
Ultimate Aim
To Transfer To
Private/PPP –
Public
Purpose
Immediate
Use Of Private
– Public
Purpose
80% Projects Affected Families Give Prior Consent

15. PROCESS OFREQUISITION

16. Land Acquisition Act, 1894 &
LAAR Act, 2013

17. Comparison b/w 1894 & 2013 Act

18. Comparison b/w 1894 & 2013 Act

19. Comparison b/w 1894 & 2013 Act

20. LAAR (Second Amendment) Bill,
2015

21.  1894’s land act was bogus and exploitive. So Congress government enacted new
law in 2013, with provisions for social impact assessment, fair compensation,
dispute settlement and other fancy things.
 LARR-2013 Act became effective from 1st January 2014.
 But, this LARR Act-2013 established an extremely complex and impractical
land acquisition process.
 Litigation: because local (and therefore corruption) Patwari and Tehsildars
never maintain proper land records of who owns how much land.
 This raised the land prices, red tapism and thus the overall project cost.
 Neither the farmer could sell its land and move to urban areas, nor the
entrepreneur could buy the land and move towards rural areas.
 Combined with Environment-activism and policy paralysis of UPA regime, the
end result was infrastructure bottleneck, high inflation.

22. Lapse of ORDINANCE
 The Ordinance Was Lapsed On August 31, 2015.
 The Ordinance Proposed By Modi Govt. Was Considered To Be
Anti Farmer.
 Faced Lot Of Protest By Farmers And Political Parties.
 Political Benefits.
 And so LARR Act-2013 is Applicable .

23. Criticism
• Congress, Trinamool Congress,
Samajwadi Party, RJD and BJD
walked out of the House.
• Congress and other parties are
accusing the bill to be "pro-
corporate" and "anti-
farmers".
• NDA ally Shiv Sena abstained
from the voice vote of the Bill in
lower house.
• Several farmers organizations
staged rallies against the Bill

24. Results
• Opposition had moved 52
amendments, which were either
negated or were not pressed for by
the members.
• In an attempt to placate the
opposition and some unhappy allies,
government brought 9 official
amendments.
• Bill was finally passed in the Lower
house.
Trinamool congress MPs staging a walkout

25. • The bill is now set for the real test in Rajya Sabha where the
NDA is in a minority and opposition is united in opposing it or
sending it to a Parliamentary Committee.
• Final list of 9 amendments
• 1. Social infra under PPP no more in exempted category
2. Panchayat's nod may be mandatory for acquiring tribal land
3. Govt may acquire land for govt bodies, corporations
4. Farmers may get right to appeal/complain over land acquisition hearing
and redressal of grievances at the district level
5. Ceiling on land for acquisition in industrial corridors
6. Hassle free mechanism for grievance redressal of land losers
7. Replace term 'private entity' with 'private enterprise'
8.Limiting the industrial corridor to one km on both the sides of the highways
and railway lines
9.Compulsory employment to one member of the affected family of farm
laborers.

26. The Tehri Dam on India’s Bhagirathi River, the main tributary of
the Ganges, is one of the world's largest and most controversial
hydroelectric projects. Under construction since 1978, the final
phase of reservoir filling is scheduled to start by December
2002. Within six months the homes and lands of around
100,000 people would be submerged. Power production is
planned to begin in August 2003. Tehri is located 200 miles
north east of Delhi, in the state of Uttaranchal. With a height of
260 meters (855 feet), the dam will be the fifth tallest in the
world. Its reservoir will completely submerge Tehri Town and
40 villages, and partially submerge 72 villages. The two lower
tunnels of the dam were closed in December 2001 submerging
the main bridge leading to Tehri town and nearby areas. The
last two tunnels, which are at a higher level, are scheduled to
be closed by December 2002. This will result in complete
submergence of Tehri Town and surrounding villages.
CASE EXAMPLE – TEHRI DAM

28. The Rehabilitation Plan has been broadly divided into Rural
Rehabilitation and Urban Rehabilitation. Affected families under
Rural Rehabilitation are categorized as "Fully affected"or "Partially
affected". The families whose 50% or more land is being acquired
are treated asfully affected. Those families whose less than 50%
land is coming under submergence arecategorized as-
"Partially Affected". In case of urban population of Tehri Town, all
5291 families living in theTown as on the cut-off date of 06.06.1985
are treated as fully affected.Under Rural Rehabilitation, there are
5429 Fully Affected families due to Tehri Dam, which areto be
rehabilitated. Another 3810 rural families are Partially Affected and
are not going to bedisplaced; they would be paid cash
compensation for their land under submergence.
The Rehabilitation Plan :

29. BROAD FEATURES OF REHABILITATION POLICY
The basic principles that had guided the formation of the Rehabilitation Policy are:
Rural oustees to be compensated through allotment of agricultural land or cash inlieu
thereof.b.
The rural oustees should be settled in large blocks so that the fabric of their sociallife remains
intact.c.
Oustees or their representatives be involved to the extent possible in selecting
therehabilitation centers.d.
To the extent possible, consideration be given to the preference of the oustees forsettlement
at a particular centre.e.
Community facilities be provided at each of the rural rehabilitation centers at thecost of the
project even if these did not exist at their earlier settlements.

30. IMPROVEMENTS IN R&R PACKAGE FROM TIME TO TIME
The rehabilitation work of the Project affected families was commenced
by the Govt. of U.P.when the Project was under them. The Rehabilitation
Policy including the location of New TehriTown(NTT) had been evolved
and decided by the State Government of U.P. after interaction with
therepresentatives of the local population. After the incorporation of
THDC, the rehabilitationwork was handed over to the THDC in 1990.
CORRUPTION :
The Central Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating six cases of
corruption against highranking officials of THDC for embezzlement of
public money. The Hanumantha Rao Committee report expressed
concern about the high incidence of corruption in the rehabilitation
process.

31. Displacement and Rehabilitation :
Although land acquisition started in 1979, resettlement of
affected people is far from complete. There is no master
plan for rehabilitation nor even a clear estimate of the
number of people affected. Past estimates range from
67,500 to 97,000. According to the 2002 Status Report of
the Public Works Department of Tehri, the Dam will
displace 12,547 families. This estimate excludes a large
number of people who will lose their lands but have not
been officially recognised as project-affected. Among those
officially recognised, only half of the fully affected, and
very few of the partially affected families have been
resettled. In most cases the land allotted is of poor quality
or with multiple ownership claims.