Gist of Bill - Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition

Passed on August 29, 2013 

That will apply when

• Government acquires land for its own use, hold and control.
• Government acquires land with the ultimate purpose to transfer it for the use of private companies for stated public purpose. 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 purpose.
• Private players buying 50+ acres of urban land tracts or 100+ acres of rural areas

LARR Bill 2011 proposes to compensate rural households – both land owners and livelihood losers. The Bill goes beyond compensation, it mandates guaranteed series of entitlements to rural households affected. According to a July 2011 report from the Government of India, the average rural household per capita expenditure/income in 2010, was Rs.928 per month (US$ 252 per year)

For a typical rural household that owns the average of 3 acres of land, the LARR 2011 Bill will replace the loss of annual average per capita income of Rs.11,136 for the rural household, with:

• four times the market value of the land, and
• an upfront payment of Rs.1,36,000 (US$ 3,000) for subsistence, transportation and resettlement allowances, and
• an additional entitlement of a job to the family member, or a payment of Rs.5,00,000 (US$ 11,000) up front, or a monthly annuity totaling Rs.24,000 (US$ 550) per year for 20 years with adjustment for inflation – the option from these three choices shall be the legal right of the affected land owner family, not the land acquirer, and
• a house with no less than 50 square meters in plinth area, and
• additional benefits may apply if the land is resold without development, used for urbanization, or if the land owner belongs to SC/ST or other protected groups per rules of the Government of India

If the affected families on the above rural land demand 100% upfront compensation from the land acquirer, and the market value of land is Rs.1,00,000 per acre, the 2011 LARR Bill will mandate the land acquirer to offset the loss of an average per capita 2010 income of Rs.11,136 per year created by this 3 acre of rural land, with the following:

• Rs.18,36,000 (US$ 41,727) to the rural land owner; which is the total of R&R allowances of Rs.6,36,000 plus Rs.12,00,000 – which is four times the market value of the land, plus
• a house with no less than 50 square meters in plinth area and benefits from Schedule III-VI as applicable to the rural land owner, plus
• additional payments of Rs.6,36,000 each to any additional families claiming to have lost its livelihood because of the acquisition, even if they do not own the land

The effects of LARR Bill 2011, in certain cases, will apply retroactively to pending and incomplete projects. The Bill exempts land acquisition for all linear projects such as highways, irrigation canals, railways, ports and others.