House passes Bill to acquire land for govt projects, Oppn walks out

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar at Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh Wednesday. (Express Photo by Jaipal Singh)

Haryana BJP’s government has decided to compulsorily take possession of the land of an unwilling owner for a government project where 70 per cent of the land has already been acquired by exchanging the property holder’s plot with another piece of land or suitably compensating him. The Haryana Consolidation of Project Land (Special Provision) Bill, 2017 was passed by the state Assembly on Wednesday even as opposition parties Congress and INLD staged a walkout, accusing the BJP-led government of giving “undue advantage” to private players. However, the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government rubbished the charges.

The Bill was tabled in the Assembly on the last day of the three-day Winter Session along with six other bills. It read: “Where the state government or any agency owns or has purchased 70 per cent or more land of the total project in a particular area falling in one or more revenue estates and remaining is left out pockets of private land, the state government may consolidate the total project land to ensure the viability of such project.”

“The projects are sometimes held up because a few landowners are not willing to sell their lands. In such cases, it may be necessary to compulsorily exchange some of the land so purchased for the project or to suitably compensate the owners of the left out pieces of land,” added the Bill. As per the statement of objects of the Bill, “No civil court shall have any jurisdiction to entertain or decide any question relating to matters falling under this Act.” It mentions that the “competent authority shall take over the left out pockets of private land and shall disburse the compensation or hand over possession of the land in lieu thereof to the person to which he is entitled under the final consolidation scheme in such manner as may be prescribed”.

After the Bill was tabled, Congress MLAs Kiran Choudhry and Raghubir Kadiyan, a former Speaker, asked the CM to defer the Bill till the next session. However, the Bill was passed despite objections by Congress and INLD. Speaking to The Indian Express, Choudhry said, “The provisions under this Bill were such that the law was brought to give advantage to private people. The state government will also be able to exchange the high priced land of any government department with private players for any project under this Bill.” However, Khattar rubbished the charges of the opposition parties and said there is no question of giving high-priced land in exchange for low value holdings under this Bill. The Chief Minister asserted the government would buy land from land owners only through negotiations.

According to the Bill passed in the Vidhan Sabha, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said, land of the farmers would be acquired through negotiation. “In case a farmer refused for the land in between the project, then his land would be exchanged with another land in the same village by giving the farmer 20 per cent additional amount of collector rate. The land acquisition would be made in a transparent manner through e-Bhoomi Portal,” he added.

Officials, meanwhile, claimed that the Bill is meant only for projects of the government, boards or corporations. In an attempt to avoid farmers’ agitations against land acquisition process, the BJP government in February had decided to create a “land bank” by buying land from those farmers who wished to sell their land for future projects. Then the state Cabinet approved a policy on purchase of land voluntarily offered to government for development projects.