WITH a view to cut down time taken to decide the land acquisition cases, Maharashtra Government has constituted a high level committee whose recommendation would form the base for notifying the final award. The committee would be having nine members and is going to be headed by Additional Chief Secretary, Forest and Land Acquisition and has respective District Collector as one of the members. The proposal coming to State would be placed before the Committee for its examination and submitting recommendation in a time bound manner. In a way it sought to do away with existing lengthy procedure, wherein the proposal used to get entangled for a long time in interdepartment review for their respective nod before giving the clearance.

 

As per current procedure, for land acquisition involving sum of Rs 100 crore of more, the respective District Collector submits the final report to Divisional Commissioner.The report details the actual land required for the Government project, the classification of property- private, Government or other, names of property owner, current circle rate and compensation recommended etc. Commissioner puts the proposal to State Government as latter has to take into account the head from where the money is to be disbursed as compensation. Many times, State foots the compensation bill since the award money is quite huge and local bodies or other Departments don’t have separate budget for land acquisition. So earlier the proposal would get examined at various stages within the Government set up as per current rules of business, which of course is quite lengthy since public money is involved. But the problem with the earlier arrangement of notifying final award for land acquisition is the lengthy procedure often droveup the project cost. As land acquisition is most crucial component, more the delay the dearer the price, as every year of delay drove-up property prices manifold. So ultimately the State is the looser, as not only it has to earmark hefty compensation, even the benefit of project conceived for larger benefit of society gets delayed, because one also has to account for time required for execution.

 

The classic study is the land acquisition for widening of Old Bhandara Road in city itself which delayed the project for almost 25 years, which created problem aplenty on the ground for the end users, the citizens. The other members in the committee would be Addl Chief Secretary, Public Works Department; Addl. Chief Secretary, Agriculture; Principal Secretary, Law and Judiciary; Addl. Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary/Secretary (Land Acquisition Division/Chief of Administrative Department); Inspector General of Stamps and Registration; Joint Director, Town Planning and Valuation Division; Joint Secretary, Land Acquisition, will act as Member Secretary of the Committee; besides District Collector of related area of land acquisition proposal.

 

The rules of procedure laid down for the high powered committee are to examine the respective district proposal and submit it to Government with their recommendation. The Committee can also invite other domain experts for valuation other than the land in case needed. Similarly, the head of parent department for whom the land acquisition is needed can also be invited before arriving at any decision. The Government hopes that the new arrangement would help in speeding up land acquisition process and ensure time bound reaping of project benefits. 

 

 

Aiming for brining in transparency, Maharashtra Government has mandated putting up information relating to land acquisition award on the website of district collectorate. The move is to ensure that the beneficiaries as well as citizens can verify the details mentioned in the final award, leaving no room for any suspicion in minds of people. Further, Government has made it mandatory of Land Acquisition officer to submit details of final award, copy of land acquired to Revenue Officer for carrying out mutation of names. This would ensure that revenue records are upto date as to ownership title so that future litigation can be avoided. The entire process is to be completed within a period of 7 days. Similarly the Land Acquisition officers have been instructed to scan earlier award and upload the same on website. District Collector are instructed to take review of the every six months.