New land acquisition bill to protect tribal rights

The proposed new land acquisition bill seeks to give the states the right to decide who acquires the land; but the new law will not override provisions in other laws meant to protect the rights of tribals and forest dwellers, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said on Tuesday.

The Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill being prepared by his ministry will have no provision for exemptions from rules that require plot takeovers to be cleared by the gram sabha or panchayats. Such clearances are required under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA).

''When land will be acquired in forest areas, the provisions of the FRA, PESA and land transfer regulations will be followed. This means the land acquisition will have to go through gram sabhas and panchayati raj institutions as enshrined in those laws,'' Ramesh told reporters.

The PESA extends panchayat law to areas that have been included under the fifth schedule of the Constitution. These are spread across nine states - including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan.

Ramesh said his ministry had consulted several political parties, including the Trinamul Congress, and other stakeholders such as the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council and the Planning Commission in preparing the bill.

The ministry is likely to put the draft bill on its website this week seeking feedback from the public. It will then be moved to the cabinet and, if approved, will be introduced in Parliament's monsoon session starting 1 August.