In their land, states have own rules : The Times of India

WITH NO END IN SIGHT TO LOGJAM OVER LAND BILL, STATES FRAME POLICIES, CENTRE GIVES ROOM Across India, Peaceful Land Buys Go On

States are devising their own plans to acquire land for infrastructure and other critical projects as they wait for the logjam over the controversial land bill at the Centre to be resolved. While some states have demanded that they be given the freedom to formulate their own land acquisition laws, a clutch of states have pressed ahead with their own plans.

UP , for example, has acquired more than 3,000ha of fertile land for its expressway without a murmur of dissent.At the same time, in West Bengal the land procurement price is five times the market rate of the land. The land owner also has the right to say no.

“We've a model land policy that doesn't have forcible land acquisition. It includes negotiation over land price, direct purchase of land by investors and rehabilitation of the land loser,“ CM Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday .

When the UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority set out to acquire land for the expressway , the state government decided to avoid the contentious “acquisition“ process almost entirely . “It was decided to purchase land through a mutual agreement.Land owners were offered four times the circle rates in rural areas, and twice the rates in urban parts.Acquisition was only considered where the mutual agreement failed,“ said Navneet Sehgal, chief executive, UPEIDA.

Maharashtra changed its rules for a substantial hike in the compensation value for land, which now attracts compensation ranging from 2.5 to five times its market value.“Land purchased through direct negotiation in rural areas will be compensated at five times the market value. Land acquired through the Land Acquisition Act in rural areas will attract four times the market price. Land in urban areas will be priced at 2.5 times the market value,“ a Maharashtra official said.

Claiming the most balanced land acquisition policy in the country , Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal urged the Centre to take a cue. Land is acquired with “consent of owners“ and farmers are paid market price plus displacement allowance in Punjab.

The Haryana policy lays down a minimum floor rate. A farmer offering an acre of land for acquisition gets anything between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 32 lakh, depending on the area. Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das on Wednesday informed the PM that Jharkhand has already framed its regulations.

Rajasthan was among the first few states that initiated framing of its own land acquisition Act. It proposed scrapping of some key measures, notably those requiring consent of landowners.