By IANS,
Chandigarh: Despite being termed as the state with the best and farmer-friendly land acquisition policy, Haryana Friday announced that new acquisitions would be put on hold pending the proposed central legislation in this regard.
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda ordered that on all those matters of land acquisition in respect of which Section 4 notifications under the Land Acquisition Act have been issued in last six months, that is on or after Feb 1, 2011, notifications under section 6 would be issued after seeing the outcome of the central legislation, a state government spokesman said here Friday.
“This has been done keeping in view the likely introduction of a bill on a national land acquisition policy in the ensuing (monsoon) session of parliament,” the spokesman said.
However, these instructions would not be applicable to cases of land acquisition for essential infrastructure projects such as roads, sewerage systems, canals, water channels, drainage system and power projects, he added.
The financial commissioner and principal secretary, revenue has been asked to issue necessary instructions accordingly to all concerned, the spokesman said.
Haryana’s land acquisition policy has been hailed at national level and by many national leaders including the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
The land acquisition policy has not only fixed good prices for the land acquired from farmers but has also made provision for the farmers getting plots and annual return on the acquired return for 33 years. Farmers, who opt for the no litigation scheme, will get 20 percent higher prices for the land.
The policy was adopted in 2005, when the Hooda government came to power in the state, and was amended in 2007 to protect interests of farmers.