Cabinet approves Ordinance to ease Land Acquisition Act

In a significant move, the Union Cabinet on Monday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved to removal the clause “consent” in the land acquisition act for five purposes.

The Union Cabinet has also approved to certain amendments in the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

The government would remove the clause “consent” for acquiring land for five areas – industrial corridors, PPP projects, rural infrastructure, affordable housing and defence.

The Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said the government decided to relax certain provisions of the act and add Section 10 A to the legislation, keeping in the mind development needs of the society.

According to a statement issued by the government, the mandatory “consent” clause and social impact assessment will not applicable if the land is acquired for five purposes including national security, defence, rural infrastructure including electrification, industrial corridor and building social infrastructure including PPP where ownership of land continues to be vested with the government.

However, the compensation and rehabilitation and resettlement packages will be applicable as per the new land acquisition act for acquiring land for these purposes.

“If the land acquisition is for the five purposes, then the consent clause will be exempted,” said Jaitley.