BHUBANESWAR: The Works department has directed all its divisions involved in infrastructure projects to ensure the acquisition of private land within three months from the date of accordance with administrative approval.
In a missive, Engineer-in-Chief (Civil), chief engineers of World Bank Projects, roads, NHs, buildings and all chief construction engineers of all circles have been asked to acquire private land through direct purchase from willing individuals within 90 days to facilitate early execution of projects.
The department has been acquiring private land under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 for taking up various infrastructure projects.
In order to facilitate the early implementation of various projects, the divisions were earlier instructed to follow the procedure laid down for the direct purchase of land under the Act, where the land owners have expressed their willingness for direct purchase.
It was alleged that some divisions did not take timely steps for execution of leased deeds as per negotiated price fixed by District Compensation Advisory Committees (DCACs) in many instances despite administrative approval accorded for direct purchase of land based on the recommendations of the district committees.
Landowners, who had earlier consented to sell their lands, didn’t come forward demanding higher compensation due to a considerable lapse of time between administrative approval and execution of the sale deed. leading to unnecessary delays in land acquisition. An official said the delay resulted in cost and time over-run of projects.