New Delhi: A day after Union Cabinet recommended re-promulgation of the controversial Land Acquisition Ordinance, President Pranab Mukherjee gave his approval for it on Sunday.
The Land Ordinance, which will be issued for the third time, was re-promulgated in March this year and will lapse on June 4.
The Ordinance was promulgated for the first time in December last year to amend the 2013 Act. Despite being passed in Lok Sabha, the government did not take it to Rajya Sabha as it lacked numbers there.
The government, which had promulgated the Ordinance twice on the Bill since December after it faced continuous resistance especially in Rajya Sabha, where it does not have the numbers, had agreed to refer it to the committee, during the recently concluded Parliament session.
While the 2013 law required that the consent of 80 per cent of land owners was obtained for private projects and that the consent of 70 per cent of land owners be obtained for PPP projects, the present bill exempts the five categories from this provision of the Act.
These categories include defence, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors and infrastructure projects including public private partnership (PPP) projects where the government owns the land.
The 2013 Act also required that a social impact assessment be conducted to identify affected families and calculate the social impact when land is acquired. This provision has been done away with.
(With PTI Inputs)
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