Govt frames uniform land purchase policy
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, October 14 2017: The State Government has framed a policy to do away with non-uniformity in prices of land when the Government goes for direct purchase of land for different development projects .

There is a practice of negotiating prices with land owners when the Government must acquire land through direct purchase for implementing development projects and welfare schemes .

Actually, acquisition of land should be done by following all the procedures of the Land Acquisition Act and the land thus acquired should be allotted to the department/agency concerned .

But acquisition of land through the Land Acquisition Act is a lengthy process and it takes a long time.

Moreover, the whole process may get jeopardised if the land owners takes the matter to Court .

As the State has witnessed many such cases, the Government devised a new process of land acquisition through direct purchase from the land owners after negotiating the value of land based on the market rate .

Govt frames uniform land purchase policy

Direct purchase of land is usually done through a committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner concerned as chairman .

But one common problem encountered during direct purchase of land is non-uniformity of price.

In another word, the price of land varies from one place to another, informed a source .

As a result of the State Government's efforts to address this problem, the Revenue Department has formulated a policy whereby prices of land negotiated for direct purchase would be made uniform .

As the prices of land varied steeply in the process of land acquisition through direct purchase for development of Imphal-Moreh highway, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways wrote a letter to the State Chief Secretary enquiring about the variance .

This prompted the State Government to formulate a policy which would be applied to all cases of direct purchase of land .

The Revenue Commissioner issued an office memorandum regarding the matter on October 9 .

According to the office memorandum, market rates of adjoining areas and their average would be calculated to fix the price of land to be acquired through direct purchase .

Land compensation would be worked out based on the 1st schedule of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 .

If the land to be acquired is located within 5 Kms of urban area, its value would be fixed by multiplying 1.25 with the market rate.

If it is located beyond 5 Kms but within 10 Kms, its value would be fixed by multiplying 1.50 with the market rate .

If the land to be acquired is located beyond 10 Kms, it value would be fixed by multiplying 2 with the market rate, informed the source .

Moreover, if the land to be acquired deserves rehabilitation package, solatium etc as per the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013, it should be considered, added the source.