The Haryana cabinet on Tuesday gave its nod for amendments in the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, a central law. An amendment Bill will be tabled in the assembly and when passed, will require the assent of the President.
An official spokesperson said the amendments have been proposed to ensure that infrastructure projects get completed and do not suffer.
The proposed amendments, the spokesperson said, aimed to create a fine balance between the goals of development and rights of the individuals. Thus, it has been proposed to amend some provisions and insert new provisions in the central law, keeping in mind the state- specific circumstances.
The proposed amendments
The cabinet approved that Section 2 of the Act be amended and a new Section 10A be inserted to exempt certain development projects, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors, health and education and urban metro rail projects from the ambit of social impact assessment study and provision to safeguard food security.
A new Section 23-A is proposed to be inserted in case there is an agreement in writing with the persons interested and making an award. Besides this, it is proposed to insert Section 31-A, pertaining to payment of lump sum amount in lieu of rehabilitation and resettlement costs for projects linear in nature, with a lump sum amount of 50% of compensation determined to the affected family. Further, to facilitate urgent acquisition of land in certain cases, under Section 40 of the principal Act, it is proposed to substitute the words “approval of Parliament”, with “the direction given by the state legislature to the state government”. The proposed legislation intends to simplify and speed up the acquisition of land in larger public interest. The amendments proposed are broadly in tune with the amendments carried out by Gujarat in 2016.
The spokesperson said serious land acquisition issues were being faced by the state government in completing the existing essential infrastructure projects. These included projects vital to national security, rural infrastructure, including electrification affordable housing and housing for poor people. Industrial corridors where the land may be acquired up to two kilometres on both sides of designated railway lines or roads for such industrial corridor, infrastructure projects such as health, education and projects under public private partnership where the ownership of land continues to vest with the state government and urban metro rail and rapid rail projects were also facing land acquisition impediments.
Creation of HR dept under chief secretary
The cabinet also approved the creation of Human Resources (HR) department under the chief secretary. An official spokesperson said the HR department has been created to ensure that standards and norms laid by it are followed in the recruitment, regulation of service conditions, posting or transfers, deputation. It would also ensure a unified administrative control over all the employees of Group A, B, C & D, including Haryana Civil Services (HCS), to ensure maintenance of common cadres through a single department and maintenance of integrity of the public services and eradication of corruption. The spokesperson said it will also ensure transparency in recruitment through Common Eligibility Test.
Amendment in HCS (executive branch) rules
The cabinet also approved amendment in Haryana Civil Service (Executive Branch) Rules, 2008. An official spokesperson said as per the amendment, there are only two levels to pass the departmental examinations- with credit (75% marks) and pass (50% marks). Thus, there is no level of higher standard to pass the departmental examination for extra assistant commissioners.
Affordable housing schemes
The Cabinet accorded approval to five affordable rental housing policies. These are policy for planned development of retirement housing, affordable rental housing, policy for planned development of student rental housing, policy for planned development of medico assisted living facilities and policy for planned development of working women’s hostel. An official spokesperson said these policies have been formulated through grant of change of land use (CLU) permission under Haryana Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas Restriction of Unregulated Act, 1963 and through the grant of license under Act Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975.
Remission of stamp duty on agri land
In a bid to reduce the financial burden on farmers in transactions in respect of exchange of cultivable agriculture land, the cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal for consideration of remission of stamp duty. As per the cabinet decision, only a nominal duty at the rate of ₹5,000 per deed of registration will be chargeable under Article 31 of Schedule 1-A of the Indian Stamp Act.
Amendment in teacher transfer policy
The cabinet gave a major relief to the teachers, clerks, assistants and lab attendants suffering from various disabilities by amending 2016 teacher transfer policy. An official spokesperson said the amendment would ensure equitable, demand-based deployment of teachers in a fair and transparent manner.
Service extension in view of pandemic
The cabinet on Thursday gave ex-post facto approval to a proposal to grant one-month extension in service to employees of four departments who were going to retire on April 30. The extension was given emergent situation arising out of pandemic.
The cabinet on Thursday approved creation of land bank for departments, boards and corporations.
Land bank for government departments
An official spokesperson said a policy for creating land bank for the government departments for development projects would entail constitution of three committees – land and rate scrutiny committee, land bank committee and a high-powered land bank committee. The state government has been experiencing difficulties in making land available to the various departments in providing land for essential services that is waterworks, power sub-stations, colleges and other specialised institutions of higher learning including universities, medical colleges and other hospitals and polytechnics etc. The unutilised land of various departments, boards and corporations shall be clubbed at one place under the Revenue department. An official spokesperson said as per the policy, the farmers can also submit a proposal to the government for buying land and can also advise the government for selecting a particular site for the development project.
CRID nodal dept for marriage registration
The cabinet approved a proposal regarding transferring of the administration of the Haryana Compulsory Marriage Registration Act, 2008, to Citizen Resources Information Department (CRID). An official spokesperson said CRID is the nodal department for handling of all citizen resources information. Since marriage constituted a key element of the family structure information, it has been decided that the nodal department for the administration of the Haryana Compulsory Registration of Marriages Act, 2008 be CRID. This is being done by making amendments in the Business of the Haryana Government (Allocation) Rules, 1974.
Hisar Airport rechristened as Maharaja Agrasen Airport
The cabinet accorded approval for designating the existing Hisar Airport as Maharaja Agrasen Airport, Hisar. An official spokesperson said phase-I of the project has already been completed with the procurement of aerodrome license for the airport in 2018-19 and the start of the flight operation from Hisar Airport under RCS UDAN scheme. Under Phase-11 of the project, work on extension of the airstrip from its existing length of 4,000 feet to 10,000 feet is already being undertaken.
Revision of vehicles’ age
The cabinet granted approval for amendment in the Haryana Motor Vehicles Rules, 1993, revising the age of operation of various types of transport vehicles under different permits in the state. This is in line with the Supreme Court orders which said the operation of diesel and petrol- driven vehicles which have attained the age of 10 and 15 respectively has been prohibited in the national capital region (NCR). Further, with the introduction of clean fuel technologies like electric vehicles, LNG, CNG, a need was felt to amend the rules to provide for enhanced age for such vehicles. An official spokesperson said this amendment will also remove an anomaly by fixing the age of stage carriage buses at par with private service vehicles and education institutional vehicles. This has been a long-pending demand of the stage carriage permit holders and will augment the transport services being provided by Haryana roadways as well as private operators, in addition to bringing savings to the public exchequer. The age of vehicles with tourist permits remains unchanged in line with rule 82 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.
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