Cabinet to amend land-acquisition law, rehabilitation before evictio

New Delhi, Mar 30 (UNI) The Cabinet would soon consider a bill amending the Land Acquisition Act which would provide proper and adequate rehabilitation and resettlement to people before acquisition and prevent forced eviction from their land.

Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh told reporters here that the proposed bill has already been drafted by his ministry and it was now being examined by the Law Ministry. Once the Law Ministry clears the bill, it would be sent to the Cabinet for clearance following which it would be presented in the next session of Parliament.

Asked about the time-frame for the bill, he said ''It is just a matter of days.'' He said under the new law the government would only acquire land for public purpose like constructing roads or railway lines and would not do land acquisition for any Special Economic Zone.

For SEZs the private parties would do the land acquisition themselves.

Moreover, there would be an adequate compensation and rehabilitation before displacement, so that the people give their land voluntarily and not be forcibly evicted.

''Development is not freedom struggle that we should expect people to sacrifice their lives, homes and land. If development has to be done it should be inclusive and develop the people first rather than adversely impacting them. There should not be any destruction for development,'' he asserted.

The existing land aquisition law has been under tremendous criticism following the incidents of Nandigram and Singur where people resisted forcible acquisition by the government.

UNI