Cabinet clears land bill despite protests

The Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Bill, which provides for the enhanced compensation to the land owners and a slew of other benefits, was approved today by the Union Cabinet.

A senior Minister said after the Cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Monmohan Singh said that the bill is to be introduced in the Parliament on Wednesday.

The Land Acquisition, Relief and Rehabilitation Bill, 2011 is believed to have a proposal for compensation four times higher than market rate to the owners.

It also proposes government help for acquistion of 20 per cent of the land for a private project in case the firm acquires 80 per cent of the land needed for a project.

The bill proposes for a subsistence allowance of Rs.3000 per family per month for a year and an annuity of 2000 per family per month for 20 years. The bill also provides employment provisions.

The bill was thereafter discussed in the Cabinet at a meeting that lasted over 90 minutes.

It is learnt that the former Chief Ministers in the Union Cabinet including Veerappa Moily, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Virbhadra Singh had their own strong view points in the bill and favoured that the same may be ironed out in the Standing Committee.

With the aim of seeking support for the bill from Cabinet colleagues, Jairam Ramesh had met his senior Cabinet colleagues including Pranab Mukherjee, Moliy, Ambika Soni, Sharad Pawar, A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Kishore Chandra Deo and Kapil Sibal.

Reported by

     AR

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