Name: Suraj Nemade
Course: BALLB
Semester: 5th
College: ILS Law College, Pune
SPECIAL PROVISIONS FOR SCHEDULED TRIBE AND SCHEDULED CAST IN LAND ACQUISITION ACT
In India, the Government of India believes that there is a high level of
public concern about land acquisition issues. Of particular concern is the fact
that, despite many amendments over the years to India's Land Acquisition Act of
1894, absence of an integrated national law, fair compensation for private land
acquired for public use, and rehabilitation of landowners and those displaced
from loss of livelihood were not addressed. The Government of India believes
that a combined law is required, one in which rehabilitation and resettlement
are absolutely essential and therefore follow government acquisition of land
for public purposes simultaneously. Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency
in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 is a law that
regulates land acquisitions and lays down specific criteria for granting
compensation, rehabilitation, and resettlement to those affected. In addition
to ensuring fair compensation for those whose land has been taken, the Act has
provisions to create transparency in the process of acquiring land for
factories, buildings, and infrastructure, and to ensure rehabilitation of the
affected people. The Land Acquisition Act of 1894 will be replaced by this new
legislation, which replaces nearly 120-year-old law passed during British rule.
The new Land Acquisition Act, which seeks to fundamentally alter the way
land is acquired, is based on the belief that every landowner should be granted
the opportunity to ensure that his interests and concerns are taken into
account during the land acquisition process of acquisition. Moreover, the act
acknowledges that every community has its own unique set of concerns that must be
addressed in a way consistent with the humane, consensus-based system of
acquisition that it endorses. Present-day land acquisition practices are
characterized by wide-spread inequities that undermine the guiding principles
of an democratic social order thought to have been created by our founding
fathers of the Constitution.
AIMS
AND OBJECTIVES OF NEW LAND ACQUISITION LAW.
● Compensation must be provided to the families
whose land has been acquired or who are affected by land acquisition.
● For land acquisition for industrialization,
infrastructure development, and urbanization, a humane, participative,
informed, and transparent process should be enacted with the least disturbance
to landowners and other affected families, with consultation with institutions
of the local self-government.
● Rehabituate and resettle such individuals in a
manner that is adequate.
THE
ACT IS APPLICABLE WHEN
● Land acquired by the government is for
government use, to be held and controlled, as well as for public sector
undertakings.
● Governments acquire land for the purpose of
transferring it to private companies for publicly stated purposes. Projects
involving public-private partnerships are included in LARR 2013, but land
acquired for state or national highway projects is excluded.
● A government acquires land to be used for public
purposes immediately and declared by private companies.
However, while the new Act has been condemned for its long and complex
nature, nobody can deny that the provisions it creates for historically
marginalized sections of the country will go a long way towards significantly
improving their negotiating power in the struggle for justice. A chapter
dedicated in the Act to asserting the rights of scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes has been carved out separately.
All the special provisions for SC/ST are given in the section 42 of
Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation
and Resettlement Act, 2013.
- Acquisition
of land as a demonstrable last resort.
As it makes it clear that such land has
to by no means
be received besides as a final resort,
the Act offers unique safety to land
belonging to SC/ST communities.
In different words, cogent and compelling motives need to be proven for
the purchase of such land. Furthermore, even supposing cogent motives exist for
the purchase of such land, the purchase need to simplest be performed with the
consent of neighborhood establishments of self-governance together with any
self reliant councils that are probably in existence.
- A unique development plan.
An improvement plan needs
to be organized
to in reality delineate the rights of
these belonging to SC/ST groups which have now
no longer but
been settled. In addition, the identity of
such people need to additionally be
restored on alienated land through a unique drive. The plan needs to
additionally embody provisions for the improvement of trade fuel, fodder
and non-wood wooded area assets on non-wooded
area land. The aforementioned assets need to be made to
be had inside a duration of five years to
fulfill the desires
of those groups.
3. Resettlement in the same area.
All possible efforts should be made to make sure that contributors belonging to the
SC/ST groups, who've to be furnished exchange lodging resulting
from land acquisition, are furnished lodging withinside the identical scheduled area, ideally in a compact block. This will now no longer allow them to live linked with their very own community, however may even permit them to hold their cultural identification. The Act acknowledges that contributors belonging to those groups can also additionally discover it tough to alter to a very new environment, and,
therefore, carves out this provision for the renovation of linguistic and
ethnic identification of affected families.
4. One-third amount as first instalment.
The preference to pretty and expeditiously compensate contributors
belonging to the SC/ST groups for the land this is received from them
additionally unearths expression withinside the provision that postulates that
1-1/3 of the reimbursement quantity should be paid to land proprietors
belonging to those groups up front. The closing quantity may be paid after the
ownership of the land adjustments hands. This provision will really move an
extended manner in alleviating the unease of impoverished land proprietors who
closely rely upon their land for incomes and their livelihood.
5. Additional benefits if resettled outside scheduled areas.
If, because of a few cogent reasons, affected households belonging to
the SC/ST groups ought to be resettled outside the scheduled vicinity wherein
they have been formerly staying, then the quantity of rehabilitation and
resettlement blessings to be furnished to them will be raised via way of means
of 25%. In addition, they will be entitled to an additional fee of Rs.
50,000/-. This provision will make the transition procedure lots smoother and
could make it viable for affected households to seamlessly combine into their
new groups.
- Land for community
gatherings.
The land will be supplied for social
gatherings in resettlement regions to contributors of SC/ST groups.
This provision similarly reaffirms the dedication
of the legislature to uphold and sell the
traditions of those groups and to keep their specific ethos.
- Higher land area to be provided.
Whenever their land
is taken away, contributors belonging to the SC/ST groups could be furnished
the equal amount of land that is obtained or 2. five acres, (whichever is
lower). It is pertinent to notice that the quantity of land to take delivery of
to contributors belonging to those groups is extensively better than the
quantity of land this is given to different landowners.
- Fishing rights in reservoir vicinity.
If affected tribal households or SC households have
fishing rights withinside the river, dam,
pond, and many others withinside the affected vicinity,
then they will be given fishing rights withinside
the reservoir vicinity of the irrigation or hydel challenge for which the land is acquired. This provision is specifically noteworthy as it ensures
land proprietors
the proper to exercise their number one career in place of
compensating them in economic terms.
- No acquisition of land in contravention of already existing laws.
Any authority that
intends to accumulate land that is owned by means of contributors of those groups ought to accomplish
that according
to all current tough and tender legal
guidelines. Laws that seek to shield the pastimes of those groups could be drastically undermined if their provisions aren't strictly adhered to. As a result, any transaction regarding the purchase of land
in contravention of current legal
guidelines could
be void.
CONCLUSION
These provisions, if
implemented properly can really change the land acquisition system, will give a
fair chance to the marginalized communities to acquire land of their own which
they have been devoid of for centuries. Aforementioned provisions will surely
empower them and make them capable of contributing to the nation's development.
Nowadays a movie namely, Jai Bhim, making a rounds on internet especially among
the gen z the movie keenly portrays the cast discrimination and not allotting
land to the irula tribe of ST community in Tamil nadu. Movie shows the scenario
mainly from the 1990s. Enactment of these Act is the significant move in the
right direction to give these persecuted people an equal chance to own a land.
The resettlement compensations are also a very great step because in the garb
of the development, the government asked these tribes to vacate the place but
didn't give them fair compensation, so this act also protects that aspect of
resettlement.