Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Rural Development, today said land records will be modernised throughout the country in three years. So far four States – Haryana, Tripura, Gujarat and Karnataka – had completed the process, he said.
The project for computerising and modernising land records is being implemented by the Rural Development Ministry.
This will allow individuals to see the land records, ownership and other details online and is important for speeding up the process of buying land by private entities.
Ramesh, who was addressing industry at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), said the draft rules and guidelines of the new Bill — the Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill — would be ready by September 30. After that they will be put up in the public domain for about a month.
Ramesh also said that if the amendments to the Registration Act 1908 are passed it will make the process of registrations transparent and help determine the correct circle rates of land, which is ambiguous at present. The amendments are complementary to the land Bill. However, the legislation is pending in Parliament.
The Bill, which seeks to raise compensation for land losers, higher consent requirements, and has rehabilitation and resettlement provisions, has raised concerns among the industry.
For one, industry members feel that the consent requirements should be eased to apply to only owners of 80 per cent of the land and not 80 per cent of land owners.
Not surprisingly, the retrospective clause in the Bill continues to rattle some industry members. However, he said the retrospective clause would apply to only projects that are at least five years old and in which the award has been announced but possession hasn’t taken place, or if majority of farmers have not accepted compensation. In such cases the compensation has to be paid as per the new laws.
The Minister reiterated that while States could make their own laws on land acquisition, they had to use the Bill as the baseline. While States can add to the provisions, such as increasing the consent clause from 80 per cent to even 100 per cent, they cannot dilute them.