LARR Act

Background and evolution

For more than a century, the State acquired land under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894, which allowed acquisition for a broadly defined "public purpose", paid compensation based on registered sale prices that were often far below real value, and made no provision for rehabilitating those who lost livelihoods. Large dams, mines and industrial projects displaced millions of people, many of them tribal communities and small farmers.

Conflicts at Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal (2006–07), and protests elsewhere, made land acquisition a national political issue. Parliament responded with the LARR Act in 2013. It combined acquisition with rehabilitation and resettlement in a single law, aiming to make the process fair, transparent and participatory.

Key features and provisions

• Compensation: market value multiplied by a factor of up to two in rural areas (depending on distance from cities) plus a 100% solatium, giving up to four times market value; up to two times in urban areas.
• Consent: for land acquired for private companies, consent of 80% of affected families; for public–private partnership projects, 70%; none for government projects.
• Social Impact Assessment: an independent assessment of the project's effects on people, followed by review by an expert group, public hearings and publication.
• Food security: limits on acquiring irrigated multi-crop land, with a requirement to develop equivalent wasteland.
• Rehabilitation and resettlement: housing, jobs or annuity, transport and subsistence allowances for affected families, including those who depend on the land but do not own it.
• Scheduled Areas: consent of gram sabhas required; acquisition only as a last resort.
• Return of land: unused land to be returned to owners or a land bank if not used within five years.
• Retrospective clause: acquisitions under the old law could lapse if compensation had not been paid or possession taken within five years.