Land Acquisition on Indian railways

2. LAND ACQUISITION OPTIONS
1) LAND ACQUISITION ACT, 2013
• Known as “Right to Fair Compensation and
Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and
Resettlement Act, 2013”.
2) RAILWAY ACT, 1989 (AMENDMENT OF 2008 has since
been repealed and the necessary modification has
been incorporated in ACT OF 1989)
3) THROUGH NEGOTIATIONS

3. LAND ACQUISITION THROUGH LAND
ACQUISITION ACT, 2013
• Known as “Right to Fair Compensation and
Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation
and Resettlement Act, 2013”.
• It replaces the Land Acquisition Act of 1894.
• Effective w.e.f. 01.01.2014
• There are different schedules in the Act.
• Schedule IV exempts certain Acts (including the
Railway Act) from its purview.

4. PROCEDURE FOR ACQUISITION OF LAND
THROUGH NEW LAND ACT
The step wise procedure for land acquisition is as follows-
(Steps (a) to (f) are common for land acquisition through
any method)
a) Final location survey of the project and
marking centre line on ground in shape of
Pucca Burjis.
b) Joint survey of alignment with Revenue
officials of the concerned State.
c) Marking of alignment on Revenue maps
by the Patwari and Kanoongo of State.

5. PROCEDURE FOR ACQUISITION OF LAND(CONTD)
d) Calculation of Khasra-wise areas and preparation of
land plans by the State Revenue staff.
e) Checking and Verification of land plans by Railways.
f) Placing the indent of the area to be acquired to
Land Acquisition Officer (LAO) nominated by State
authorities for the purpose of land acquisition.
g) Nomination of Social Impact Assessment Unit
(SIAU) and submission of land papers to SIAU by
State Govt for preparing Social Impact Assessment
Study as per Section 4 of New Land Act.

6. PROCEDURE FOR ACQUISITION OF LAND(CONTD)
h) Intimation of fee by SIAU, based on the quantum
of work as per Rules framed by State Govt.
i) Deposition of fees by the Railway.
j) SIA (Social Impact Assessment) notification by
State Govt. under section 5.1 of New Land Act.
k) Publication of SIA study report and social impact
management plan under section 6.1 of New Land
Act.

7. PROCEDURE FOR ACQUISITION OF LAND(CONTD)
l) Appraisal of SIA Report and submission of
Recommendations by Expert Group under sec 7.
m) Examination & Approval of proposals for land
acquisition and SIA report by State Govt under
section 8.
n) Preliminary notification for land acquisition under
section 11.
o) Publication of declaration under section 19 after
hearing of objections under section 15 and
preparation of rehabilitation and resettlement
scheme under section 18.

8. PROCEDURE FOR ACQUISITION OF LAND(CONTD)
p) Award by the collector under section 23 of New
Land Act.
q) Payment of award.
r) Possession of land under section 38.
s) Mutation of land.
t) Preparation and verification of Land Completion
Plans.
Note - Steps (g) to (n) can be initiated simultaneously with
Steps (a) to (f), after identification of approx land corridor.

9. ANTICIPATED TIMELINE FOR LAND ACQUISITION AS PER
NEW LAND ACT
The approx time required for various activities after FLS,
marking centre line on ground and Joint Survey with Revenue
officials will be as follows-
SN ITEM TIME
1 Calculation of Khasra-wise areas, preparation of
land plans and its verification
60 days
2 Placing of the indent of area required to be
acquired with LAO of State
7 days
3 Nomination of Social Impact Assessment
Unit(SIAU) by State authorities
15 days
4 Submission of papers by State Govt to SIAU 1 day
5 Intimation of fee by SIAU 7 days

10. ANTICIPATED TIMELINE FOR LAND ACQUISITION AS PER
NEW LAND ACT(Contd)
SN ITEM TIME
6 Deposition of fee by Railways 15 days
7 SIA notification by State Govt. under section 4.1 7 days
8 Publication of SIA study report and SI
management plan under section 6.1
90 days
9 Recommendation of expert group under sec 7 30 days
10 Examination of report by Govt. under section 8
i) Report of Collector
ii) Report of expert group
30 days
11 Preliminary notification under section 11.1 1 day

11. ANTICIPATED TIMELINE FOR LAND ACQUISITION AS PER
NEW LAND ACT(Contd)
SN ITEM TIME
12 Publication of declaration under section 19.1
after hearing of objections under section 15 and
preparation of rehabilitation and resettlement
scheme under section 18
90 days
13 Award by Collector under section 23 60 days
14 Payment of award 30 days
15 Possession of land starts on D+443
Days
D – The day when the joint survey with Revenue officials is
completed.

12. LAND ACQUISITION THROUGH
RAILWAY ACT,1989
 Standing instructions exist that all Railway Projects are
‘Special Railway Projects’ (Letter dt 19.12.14 of RB).
 Vide letter dt 22.11.2017, RB has advised to declare all
such Railway projects which have assured funding and to
be completed in a specified time frame, as ‘Special
Railway Projects’.
 However, project-wise notification under Cl 37A is
required to be issued with the approval of General
Manager.
 Competent Authority under Cl 7A for Land Acquisition can
be nominated by the GM or CAO.

13. PROCEDURE FOR LAND ACQUISITION
THROUGH RAILWAY ACT
PLEASE REFER TO PRESENTATION MADE BY SH SANJAY
RASTOGI, MD/CRCL DURING 1ST WORKHOP ON STATE
JVs HELD ON 24.04.17

15. LAND ACQUISITION THROUGH NEGOTIATIONS
• This can be resorted to when the land to be acquired is
small or in isolated pockets, for example, in Gauge
Conversion Projects and/or when small patch of land is
left inadvertently during initial acquisition.
• It involves constitution of Negotiation Committee by the
State Govt. having Railway representative as part of it.
• Compensation as per State Govt Rules.
• Multiplying Factor as per RULES notified by State Govt.

16. PROCEDURE FOR LAND ACQUISITION THROUGH
NEGOTIATIONS
Steps (a) to (f) will be the same as discussed above. Thereafter,
following steps are involved-
g) Constitution of negotiation committee by the State Govt. having
Railway representative as part of it.
h) Joint inspection of alignment with all concerned departments &
land owners.
i) Negotiations with land owners for fixing rates of the land.
j) Recommendations by the committee and their approval by State
Govt.
k) Award by the Collector, payment and possession of Land.

17. MULTIPLYING FACTOR
 AS PER SCH-III OF NEW ACT, the rates payable for land shall
be arrived at by multiplying Market rate/Circle rate by M.F.
• M.F. is 1 for Urban Areas
• 1 to 2 for Rural Areas
 Ministry of Rural Development, vide notification dated
09.02.2016, fixed the M.F. as 2 for Rural areas.
 Representations were received from various State Govts for
clarification regarding M.F.
 Clarification issued vide letter dated 17.05.2017. As per this,
M.F. is not fixed as 2 for all cases. It will be as per the rules
made by ‘Appropriate Govt’ in this regard.

18. APPROPRIATE GOVT MEANS
1) For acquisition of land within the territory of a State, the State
Govt;
2) For acquisition of land within the territory of a Union
Territory, the Central Govt;
3) For acquisition of land situated within the Union territory of
Puducherry, the Government of Union territory of
Puducherry;
4) For acquisition of land for public purpose in more than one
State, the Central Government, in construction with the
concerned State Governments or union territories: and
5) For acquisition of land for the purpose of the Union as may be
specified by notification, the Central Government;

22. Presentation
on
Land Acquisition Processes
For
JV Projects
(Presented by Sh Sanjay Rastogi, MD/CRCL during 1st
Workshop on State JVs held on 24.04.17)

23. Land Acquisition Options
 Since 01.01.2014, the Right to Fair Compensation,
Rehabilitation and Resettlement in Land Acquisition
Act 2013 has come into effect.
 This replaces the LA Act 1894.
 There are different schedules in the Act.
 Schedule IV exempts certain Acts (including the
Railway Act) from its purview.
 This means that land can be acquired under the
Railway Act (amendment of 2008).

24. Applicability of the Railway Act
 The Project should be sanctioned.
 The land should be in the name of a Railway.
 No difficulty in case the SPV decides to have land in the
name of Railway
 Examine considering the SPV/JVC itself as a Railway
 Can’t be considered a NGR or a private Railway as long
as fair/freight is collected by IR and operated by them.

25. Processes of Railway Act
 Standing instructions exist that all Railway Projects are
‘Special Railway Projects’.
 However, project-wise notification is required to be
issued with the approval of General Manager(Cl 37A).
 Competent Authority is nominated by the GM(Cl 7A)
 There is no qualification specified.
 It’s a good idea if a revenue official is appointed as CA.
 A request is made to the State Govt. to nominate a full
time or part time CA. On receipt of such recommendation
from State Govt, the GM approves the notification.

26. Field Processes
 Land corridor is to be identified on the ground.
 Effort is made to transfer the corridor on village maps as
accurately as possible. This is only for reference purpose
and get a broad view of locating the project on village
maps.
 The village maps are mostly based on some antiquated
technique and the corridor can never be truly translated from
map to the ground or vice versa.
 Hence, the details of land losers and the area involved is to be
picked from the ground. However, inaccuracy creeps in as
there are ambiguities regarding ownership on the ground
also.

27. Field Processes
 First notification is under Clause 20A. It is about intent to
acquire land. It is supposed to have a brief description of
land.
 Clause 20B gives permission to enter lands, comes into effect
after 20A.
 Actually, all Acts have a little anomaly here. Surveyor is not
expected to enter private lands until a notification under
clause 20A has been published. However, the later
implementation depends on the accuracy of description of
lands under Cl 20A. This is achieved only by cooperation of
Distt. Officials who allow a survey/ joint survey to find the
exact plot Nos. and the area involved.

28. Field Processes
 After gazette publication of the notification under Cl 20A, the
Competent Authority causes its publication in local newspapers.
This specifies the time limit of 30 days along with place at which
the land records can be examined and objections to the purpose
can be made.
 All time schedules are with respect to publication of this info in
local newspapers.
 Many revenue officials get into sorting out local issues such as a
missing plot brought to his notice by some land owner. But this is
not the time for resolving these matters.
 Here only objections to the purpose can be entertained.
 After the due date, the CA considers the objections. Unless there
is anything to the contrary, the CA is expected to reject frivolous
objections and issue a letter to the GM( or any railway authority).

29. Field Processes
 Having received a ‘No Objection’ clearance from the
CA, the Govt decides to acquire the land and issues
another notification under Cl 20E.
 This notification includes the details of all land owners
or anyone whose interest may be involved to seek their
claims.
 After gazette notification, this is again published in
local news papers and claims are heard on a fixed date,
time and place.

30. Field Processes
 After hearing the claims, the CA is expected to prepare
award of compensation, resettlement and rehab
simultaneously.
 Help of some local NGOs may be enlisted in
identifying families and other interested parties.
 LARR 2013 and Removal of Difficulties Rules of 2015
make it clear that R&R is to be implemented as per
Schedule III of the Act.

31. Compensation and R&R
 Compensation is four times the cost of land in rural areas and
two times the cost of land in urban areas.
 R&R has several components:
 Jobs for the affected families or
 Annuity of inflation indexed Rs 30000 per family, or
 One time lump sum package of Rs. 5.0 lakh per affected family.
 The R&R Policy of 2007 had defined affected family as that
family whose primary source of earning or livelihood is
affected.
 LARR defines Affected Family as a family whose land has
been acquired. There is no mention of the quantum or
percentage land lost.

32. Anomalies
 There are many families owning one plot.
 The acquired area out of a plot could be 0.1 Acre or 1% in
one case and 5 acres and 90% in another case.
 Can we have the same R&R package for all?
 The best solution is to link R&R with the quantum of
land.
 States like Gujarat and Chhattisgarh have issued such
orders to link R&R with the amount of compensation.
 These may have to undergo a cycle of validation by
courts.

33. Forest Clearance and diversion
of Forest Land
 Forest Case registration with all details of forest land
 Three types of forest lands, revenue forest, protected
forest or reserve forest
 Different notations like orange or red
 Forest Deptt will insist on DGPS survey of all forest
plots, most of which will not tally with existing maps.
 Great amount of jugglery and personal favours may be
involved.

34. Forest Clearance and diversion of
Forest Land
 The work can’t be managed without competent
consultants
 All steps must be taken with knowledge that someone
with approach NGT. Proper records are to be kept
 FC Act and FRA are applicable.
 Role of Gram Sabha to be arranged by State Govt.
 Stage-I and Stage-II clearance required after that
formal letters of diversion of land is to be issued by
PCCF.

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