Criticism
The Land Acquisition act has been criticized by groups that view the act as weak and ineffective, and by groups that view the act as draconian. People who feel that act is weak argue that the procedure followed is cumbersome and costly, often resulting in inordinate delay in land acquisition. This group argues that, the determination of public purpose should be matter of executive discretion and should not be contestable at law. It has also been argued that the property valuation techniques are flawed and that the land owners get to peg the value higher than the real value, based on ‘potential value’ and ‘opportunity value’ of their property; resulting in, what is claimed as, a heavy strain on public finances and restrictions on the scale of development and redevelopment projects. There is also opposition to the additional payment of solatium to landowners over the property value.
People who argue that the act is draconian claim that a number of projects with no public purpose attached, as in the case of SEZs, usurped land from property owners, with the help of the Land Acquisition Act, at what is claimed as, well below the market value of these properties. It is argued that, even in the case of projects that are genuinely for public purposes, there is a considerable difference between the market value of the property and the value that the land acquisition officer pays the land owners. It is also argued that the relocation and rehabilitation of land owners displaced by the actions of the act, is not followed up adequately, and that this is not covered comprehensively in the framework of the act. A notable instance of opposition to land acquisition, through the land acquisition act, is the Nandigram violence incident.
It is for this reason that government has proposed further amendments in the Act to strict define the purposes for which land could be acquired. If the Amendments get through, the provisions of the Act could be invoked only in limited conditions.There are some suggestion by various commission in different states, to provide rehabilitation for whom evicted from their own land. The land acquisition (kerala amendment) bill proposed by Justice V.R Krishna Iyer Committee submitted on 26 January 2009 is an example. It is in the consideration of Kerala Government until the date.
Read more about this topic: Land Acquisition Act, 1894
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