New Delhi: In a move aimed at making the land acquisition process for building national highways (NHs) more efficient and cut down on wasteful expenditure, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has proposed a slew of changes to the National Highways Act, 1956, ThePrint has learnt.
The process of land acquisition for building highways continues to be tardy and is one of the main reasons for delay in completion of projects. The proposed amendments include addition of a new clause in Section 3D, which deals with declaration of land acquisition by the central government for building a national highway.
The new clause will allow land, which has remained unutilised for five years from the date of taking over possession or where a NH project or a section of the project for which land was acquired has become unfeasible within five years from the date of notification, to be returned to the original owner or owners or their legal heirs “on the payment of such compensation for any damage caused to the land”.
Senior road ministry officials aware of the changes being proposed told ThePrint that the move to return unutilised land was being done to cut down on wasteful expenditure. “This will result in saving of exchequer money by returning unutilised and surplus land to the land owners,” a ministry official said.
According to these officials, as on date the government is saddled with 600 hectares of such land that was acquired for building highways but since then the project has become unviable. “Such land is of no use to the government. But because earlier there was no provision to return land once it was acquired and notified, the government did not have an option but to keep it,” a road ministry official said.
Under the existing Act, a land once notified as NH cannot be denotified and returned to the owner even if at a later stage it was found to be unviable for one or the other reasons.
A road sector expert said the proposed change will also put pressure on the highways ministry to do its homework diligently before acquiring land. “The survey of the land, preparation of detailed project report, etc has to be more diligent to ensure that a particular land acquired for building a highway does not become unfeasible later,” the expert said.
The expert added that the proposed changes do not give clarity on how the land compensation awarded to the original owner will be taken back once the land is returned after five years.
The road ministry has moved a cabinet note to amend the existing National Highways Act, 1956. The last time the NH Act was amended was in 1997.
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Cases related to land acquisition to be decided within 3 yrs
Among the other amendments proposed are addition of a new section 3 (J) that stipulates that after expiry of three years from the date of publication of award for land acquisition, no suit or application related to acquisition award shall lie in any court relating to such award.
The three-year period has been taken from the Limitation Act, 1963, which provides for dismissal of a suit or application after the prescribed period is over.
“This provision aims to address the large number of cases related to land acquisition compensation that have been challenged and are pending in courts,” the senior government official, quoted earlier, said.
The proposed amendments have also fixed timelines for various other provisions, including award of compensation to land owners whose land has been acquired.
It gives a one-year time to the Competent Authority for Land Acquisition (CALA) to determine the amount to be awarded from the date of publication of notification under Section 3D. The central government may, however, extend the time beyond one year.
Setting timelines, officials said, will ensure that the land acquisition process is more efficient and authorities are more accountable for providing output in a time-bound manner.
Delay in payment to increase govt’s interest burden
Among the other changes the road ministry has proposed in the Act, includes award of interest at the rate of 12 percent per annum on market value of the land, which will be calculated from the date of publication of notification under Section 3A (declaration by the government its intention to acquire the land) till the actual date of award of compensation. This provision was not there earlier.
The provision, officials said, will ensure that there is no unnecessary delay in awarding compensation to land owners once the notification to acquire and is published under Section 3A. “Any delay will mean that the government will have to bear the interest burden,” a second government official said.
In cases where the compensation for acquiring a particular land as determined by the CALA is not acceptable to the land owner or the central government, they will have to move an application within three months from the date of award of compensation to the central government-appointed arbiter. The arbiter will have to determine the compensation within six months of receiving the application.
Another addition proposed in the Act deals with the compensation amount determined by CALA for the land that has been acquired. A new provision has been proposed, according to which if the amount determined by the CALA is not acceptable to either of the parties, then they will have to submit an application within three months from the date of award to the arbitrator appointed by the central government.
A road ministry official said that this provision is already there in the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013. “We are aligning the NH Act with the RFCTLARR Act. Many of the provisions of the land acquisition law were not adapted in the NH Act so far,” the official added.
Like in the previous case, the arbitrators will have to determine the compensation within six months from the date an application has been moved. This, officials said, will help expedite the land acquisition process.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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