It took six years of feasibility studies and seven hours of debate, but the upper house of the Indian Parliament yesterday finally passed a pivotal land bill, providing farmers and owners with greater rights over their land and fairer compensation to those whose land is being acquired in the name of urban or infrastructural development.
The new legislation (known as the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill) replaces the archaic 1894 Land Acquisition Act, and mandates the consent of 80% of the people living on the land for any acquisition to go through. It also provides for improved compensation for landowners — four times the market price in rural areas and two times in urban areas.
Calling the step a historic one, the Congress said that there was “national consensus” on the need for the legislation.
Analysts say that both this bill and…
View original post 70 more words