Article on "SPECIAL PROVISIONS FOR SCHEDULED TRIBE AND SCHEDULED CAST IN LAND ACQUISITION ACT" by Suraj Nemade




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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.