Mayawati announces new land acquisition policy

Nksagar-Sagar Media Inc: New Delhi:
Mayawati Government in UP on farmers' agitation, on Thursday announced a new land acquisition policy under which its role in acquiring land for private developers would only be that of a facilitator.The chief minister, who held a farmers' Panchayat earlier in the day to discuss their problems, announced that the new policy will be implemented with immediate effect.Facing flak over acquiring land for private companies, the government has decided that from now on, the developers would be acquiring land directly from the farmers.

The chief minister also said that such acquisitions could only happen with the agreement of 70 per cent of the farmers in a given area. In case of disagreement, the project would be reviewed, she said.

Giving details of the new policy, she said that in the affected villages where land has been acquired, the developer would have to construct a kisan bhawan as well as a model school.

The chief minister clarified that areas where land has already been acquired and compensation distributed to farmers including Bhatta-Parsaul and Tappal will be out of the ambit of the policy.

Mayawati said the new policy has been framed to safeguard the interest of farmers, adding that their suggestions during the day-long panchayat in Lucknow, would be incorporated in the government order.

Terming the new policy a historic one, she said efforts would be made to get it implemented at the national level as the Union government also plans to bring a land acquisition bill during the monsoon session.

She stuck to her threat of protesting outside Parliament if the Centre failed to bring a new bill in the monsoon session.

This policy is even better than the ones being implemented in Congress-ruled states like Haryana, she claimed.

Blaming the Opposition for instigating the recent agitations, she said that instead of putting pressure on the Centre to amend the existing policy, they enacted a "drama" in UP and created a law and order problem at some places in the state.

The chief minister said an assurance has been given to representatives from Bhatta-Parsaul that the government would compensate the damages.According to the new policy, Mayawati said that for purposes including National Highways, canals or other basic amenities, land acquisition would be through mutual agreement and farmers would get the benefits of state's rehabilitation and relocation policy.

For setting up power and other projects, private companies would be negotiating directly with the farmers with the government just playing the role of a facilitator.She said two options would be given to farmers, adding that they can either take 16 percent of the developed land along with annuity of Rs 23,000 per acre for 33 years or take cash for some portion of the 16 percent land.
Farmers would also have the option of taking a one-time payment in case they do not want annuity which otherwise would be paid in July with a hike of Rs 800 annually.
Exemption on stamp duty will be given to farmers, she said adding that one member of the farmers' family being displaced, would get a job as per his qualification in the company.

CCI Commissioning Market study on Agriculture,Steel and Paper

June 2,2011 New Delhi:Competition Commission of India CCI,under its mandate to make market function for the consumers and to ensure fai and healthy competition in the iNidan economy,is initiating a series of market studies to analyse and monitor the competitive dynamic in the various industries of the Indian economy.
As part of this series,the sector of Agriculture,Steel and Papers have been taken up by the Commission in the initial phase.In this context CRISIL, is engaged by the Commission for the market studies on the Paper and Steel Industries in India.The studies shall present a comprehensive overview of the industry,with particular focus on the parameters that determine the nature and degree of competition prevailing in the industry and help identify the competitive concerns.
The spurt in food prices in recent months has brought back into focus the critical issue of price volatility in agriculture commodities,poor agriculture market structure and lower market efficiency with speculative trading and with poor PDS and coterie of hoarding in the market each needs to be studied in detail.

Competition Commission of India commissions Market Studies/Research Projects as a part of its advocacy mandate. Since inception of the research study programme in 2003-04, 18 studies have been commissioned till date, out of which, 12 are sector specific, covering, in general, the manufacturing, service, transport, energy, telecommunications, etc. and the remaining relate to conceptual issues in competition economics, law and policy. Market Studies/Research Projects have been commissioned with a view to:
(i) Gain insight into the structure of various sectors of the market and the business practices prevailing therein;
(ii) Assist the Commission in its role of undertaking competition advocacy and public awareness and training. The studies/research projects could help in generating greater awareness about competitive issues and anti competitive practices;
(iii) Identify policies and practices of Central and State Governments and Statutory Authorities that are having appreciable adverse effect on competition in markets in India; and
(iv) Building capacity in the area of competition law and policy for researchers.