Realizing the importance of land for development projects, the legislature long back passed the Land Acquisition Act. It empowered the Government with the right of acquiring any land it needed for undertaking a developmental project. However, the Act did not over-ride the interests of the land holders so as to give an impression that land was being acquired arbitrarily. A mechanism was evolved for regulating the fixation of compensatory price of the land. Apart from that, the option of the land owner making an appeal to a court of law for reconsideration of the quantum of compensation fixed was also provided. From the results that are before us, the existing Land Acquisition Act has given rise to huge litigations and the Revenue Department is usually busy in handling the cases of revision of price of land. With the passage of time, the cost of land escalated many times and land owners gradually became unwilling to give their lands to the Government but could not refuse owing to the Act. This Act is not exclusive to our State. In the entire country the land acquisition law is applicable because development is universal phenomenon. The problem in our State is the paucity of land since most of the state is hilly.
Thus land acquisition has become a regular problem and is being addressed on individual level. However, of late a new dimension is added to this problem and that is the paucity of funds to be paid by way of compensation to the land owners. The result is that arrears have accumulated owing to pendency of payment of compensation and now it is becoming difficult for the Government to find wherefrom the huge arrears can be managed. According to the official figures, an amount of Rs 120 crore is required for completion of land acquisition in respect of Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP) projects in Jammu province. Similarly, requirement of an amount of Rs 28 crore has been projected for land acquisition for the health sector projects. Amount projected for land under acquisition process in respect of Public Works Department is Rs 471 crore. How is the administration going to handle the problem is a serious question.
In the previous budget session the Finance Minister touched upon this subject and made an announcement that the Government was going to launch a scheme called Land Compensation Fund under which the Finance Department would allocate seed money and then in due course of time money would be coming from different sources. The purpose was to make money easily and quickly available for disbursement to the concerned persons who were required to be compensated. Seven months have passed when the Government announced the raising of the fund but nothing has moved. It was suggested that the Land Compensation Fund would be placed at the disposal of Deputy Commissioners of the districts because it was his realm of affairs. Strangely no order has been issued from the Finance Department so far in regard to opening the much propagated Land Compensation Fund.
The point is that the Government should understand the fallout of a policy of procrastinating payment of compensation to land owners. It sends a negative message and induces land owners to resist giving their lands because they feel the compensation payment could take any number of years. It should be possible for the Government to make some sort of arrangement to advance funds to the Land Compensation Fund as seed money and the money has to be transferred to the Deputy Commissioners concerned. This could help in overcoming the problem of delayed payment of compensation.
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