Even though the Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh urged the state government to implement the new land acquisition act — The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 — the policy makers in Maharashtra, including chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, have already expressed their concerns about it. The concerns that have been raised were the cost of infrastructure projects as the compensation rates in the new act are too high and also the condition to win consent of 80 per cent of the affected people. According to the new act, industrial houses will have to negotiate directly with the farmers and the owners of the land that they intend to acquire. “The industrial houses even need the consent of 80 per cent of the people whose land is to be acquired, which is applicable to all the projects that includes infrastructure too. Hence, the act was opposed by us as it will harm the interests of all concerned,” said a senior officer on the condition of anonymity. The state was not in favour of industrial houses going across to approach the farmers directly for land acquisition. The government believed that this could lead to malpractices and arm-twisting. The decision was putatively taken to end the intermediary role of the state after the Singur incident, during which the police shot down many protesting farmers. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan too recently expressed his concern that the act might push up land acquisition costs. “The new land acquisition bill worries us as the cost will go up. We need to see how this bill impacts domestic projects in state,” he had said.
