HYDERABAD: To ensure that no legal hurdles arise in acquiring lands for the proposed 19,333-acre Hyderabad Pharma City project, the Telangana government has been quick in getting a condition pertaining to land acquisition amended in environment clearance (EC) accorded to the project by the central government.
The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the ministry of environment and forests accorded Environmental Clearance at its May 7 meeting this year to Hyderabad Pharma City project. Among the conditions listed by the EAC for grant of EC was one on land acquisition, which said that land acquisition had to be done with the consent of landowners but did not exclusively mention which law had to be followed. The condition said, “Remaining land acquisition to be done with the consent of landowners only with suitable compensation.”
However, soon after the minutes of May 7 meeting of EAC were out, the state government wrote back to the EAC on May 25 asking for certain changes to be made to the minutes of the meeting. On June 25, when the EAC met again, officials from Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, the project proponent, made the presentation before the EAC on points raised in the May 25 letter.
Following this, the EAC changed the condition on the land acquisition it had laid down on May 7. The new condition as per the minutes of EAC meeting held on June 25 mentions that land acquisition should be done as per the state government-amended version of the 2013 central law on land acquisition. It said, “Remaining land acquisition to be done with the consent as per the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 and as amended by the government of Telangana— RFTLARR (Telangana Amendment) Act 2016. One of the demands made during the public hearing for the pharma city project was that central law of 2013 on land acquisition be followed rather than the Telangana-amended version of the law. The state government has already acquired 7,414 acres for the project.
In 2016, the state government did away with some provisions under Chapter-II and III of the central government’s Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, often referred to as the LARR Act, for a long list of projects, including industrial corridors and infrastructure projects, in PPP mode . Some of the provisions done away with by Telangana include the mandatory Social Impact Assessment study to understand whether the proposed project for which land is acquired serves any public purpose.
Central Land Act, 2013 provisions done away with by TS
Mandatory Social Impact Assessment study to understand whether the proposed project for which land is acquired serves any public purpose, whether the extent of land being acquired is absolute bare minimum and that no irrigated multi-cropped land is acquired.