what is Land acquisition act ?

“Land Acquisition” literally means acquiring of land for some public purpose by government/government agency,after paying a government fixed compensation in lieu of losses incurred by land owner(s) due to surrendering of his/their land to the concerned government agency. 

The land acquisition act of 1894 was created with the expressed purpose of facilitating the government’s acquisition of privately held land for public purposes. The word "public purpose", as defined in the act, refers to the acquisition of land for putting up educational institutions or schemes such as housing, health or slum clearance, apart from the projects for rural planning or formation of sites.

 Some call it as a draconian bill and they argue 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.  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.

Considering the mounting criticism, an amendment bill is proposed.  The land acquisition amendment bill 2007  proposed several amendments to the original act.  The Standing Committee under the chairmanship of Sri Kalyan Singh recommended for repealing the old act and to enact a comprehensive Land Acquisition Bill.  Standing Committee recommended for the protection of agricultural land and for the development of waste lands.  Some of the notable recommendations of Standing Committee are

1. All the benefits provided under the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement legislation should be doubled at every stage in case of second and subsequent displacement of a family/person.
2. The  highest price of sale deed as indicated in the sale deeds of the last three years plus 50 per cent of the highest price should be the criteria for assessing and determining the market value of the land
3. The Committee recommends that emergency powers of the government may be restricted to acquisition of minimum area of land for the purpose of defence or national security or in case of natural calamities