Assembly To Meet On April 30 For Land Act Changes

Taking a cue from the Centre, the Telangana government has taken a decision to make some changes to the 2013 Land Acquisition Act for avoiding delays in land acquisition and in regards to payment of compensation to the land donors or victims.

A special Assembly session on April 30 at 11 am and Council session at 3 pm on the same day will be conducted to make the necessary amendments to the Act. To conduct the business and to decide on the working hours, the Business Advisory Committee will meet on April 29 at the Assembly. Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary will chair the meeting which will be attended by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Deputy Chief Minister K Srihari, Legislative Affairs Minister T Harish Rao, Deputy Speaker Padma Devender Reddy and leaders from the Opposition parties.

According to informed sources, the Chief Minister has asked the officials to make the necessary arrangements for the special session of legislature. It is pertinent to note here that the Chief Minister, during a meeting in Delhi, had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help get the Central nod for several issues, including the Land Acquisition Act. Modi had agreed, but suggested some changes and riders to the Act, including higher compensation to the land donors and victims. Following Modi's suggestion, KCR is apparently keen to make the required amendments to the bill that was already passed in the previous session.

As part of the changes, the Telangana government has decided to remove a clause that the 2016 Land Acquisition Amendment Act will come into force from the date of its publishing in the gazette. Instead it will now come into effect from the date of Telangana formation (June 2, 2014).

Another change is to remove a clause that fixes the compensation after acquiring the land, and instead give compensation as per amended market rates to the land losers.

The third change is to talk to the land donors or losers on the compensation and give more than what is mentioned in the Central act and not less. District Collectors will take steps in this regard as per the Act.

The final change is taking the permission of Parliament and not the Centre for acquiring the land.