NEWS

Andhra Pradesh government announced that ₹5 lakh per acre financial package would be given to the farmers who parted with their lands for the Polavaram irrigation project prior to the enactment of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

RIGHT TO FAIR COMPENSATION ACT, 2013

• Promulgated in 2013
• Replaced the Land Acquisition Act, 1894
• Regulates the land acquisition and lays down the procedure and rules for granting compensation, rehabilitation, and resettlement to the affected persons in India
• Has provisions to provide fair compensation to those whose land is taken away, brings transparency to the process of acquisition of land to set up factories or buildings, infrastructural projects and assures rehabilitation of those affected
• Establishes regulations for land acquisition as a part of India’s massive industrialization drive driven by public-private partnerships

Scope of the Act

• Aims to establish the law on land acquisition, as well as the rehabilitation and resettlement of those directly affected by the land acquisition in India.
• Includes all land acquisition whether it is done by the Central Government of India, or any State Government of India

Is applicable when

• Government acquires land for its own use, hold, and control, including land for Public sector undertakings.
• Government acquires land with the ultimate purpose to transfer it for the use of private companies for stated public purposes. The purpose of LARR 2011 includes public-private-partnership projects but excludes land acquired for state or national highway projects.
• Government acquires land for immediate and declared use by private companies for public purposes.
• Do not apply to acquisitions under 16 existing legislations including the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005, the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, the Railways Act, 1989, etc.

POLAVARAM IRRIGATION PROJECT

• Multi-purpose irrigation project
• Dam across the Godavari River is under construction located in West Godavari District and East Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh state and its reservoir spreads in parts of Chhattisgarh and Orissa States also.
• Multipurpose major terminal reservoir project on river Godavari for development of Irrigation, Hydropower and drinking water facilities to East Godavari, Vishakhapatnam, West Godavari and Krishna districts of Andhra Pradesh.
• Accorded national status in 2014 in the Andhra Pradesh Bifurcation Act and its design was changed.