 bill no 54 of 2007 the agricultural  land  acquisition  regulatory authority   bill,  2007 by shri hansraj gangaramji ahir, mp a billto provide for the constitution of an agricultural land acquisition regulatory authority for the purpose of regulation of land acquisition in the country and for matters connected therewith or incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the fifty-eighth year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the agricultural land acquisition regulatory authority act, 2007short title, extent and commencement(2) it extends to the whole of india5(3) it shall come into force at oncedefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "agricultural land" means such land where any crop has been grown through cultivation at any time during the preceding ten years or any land having any forest cover;10(b) "appropriate government" means in the case of a state, the government of that state and in all other cases, the central government;(c) "authority" means the agricultural land acquisition regulatory authority constituted under section 3 of this act; and(d) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act53 the central government shall constitute a regulatory authority for regulation of acquisition of agricultural land to be known as the agricultural land acquisition regulatory authorityagricultural land acquisition regulatory authority4 (1) the authority shall consist of:—10composition of theauthority(i) a retired judge of supreme court who shall be the chairperson; (ii) five members having atleast ten years experience of teaching in agricultureuniversities and who shall be appointed in such manner as may be prescribed; and(iii) five other members having special knowledge in the field of agriculture tobe appointed in such manner as may be prescribed15(2) the chairperson and other members of the authority shall hold office for a periodof five years(3) the headquarters of the authority shall be at nagpur in the state of maharashtra (4) the authority shall have its office in every state/union territory20(5) the central government shall provide such number of officers and staff to the authority as are required for its efficient functioning5 the authority shall perform the following functions:—functions of the authority(a) collection of data pertaining to agricultural land in all the states;(b) monitoring all agricultural land acquisition in the country; (c) issuing prohibition order on acquisition of agricultural land wherevernecessary;25(d) issuing no objection certificate for agricultural land acquisition; and(e) conducting suo motu inquiry into any specific acquisition of agriculturalland in such manner as may be prescribed306 (1) after the commencement of this act, it shall be mandatory for every authority or agency under the state government or the central government to obtain a no-objection certificate from the authority for acquisition of land in such manner as may be prescribedland not to be acquired without noobjection certificate from the authority35(2) before issuing any no-objection certificate under sub-section (1), the authority shall satisfy itself by verifying relevant documents or visiting the site that the land being acquired by the appropriate government is not an agricultural land or, if it is an agricultural land, circumstances exist warranting the acquisition of such land(3) the authority shall give its decision regarding issue of no-objection certificate not later than three months from the date of receipt of application for a no-objection certificatepunishment7 any person violating the provisions of this act shall be punished with animprisonment which may extend to three years and a fine which shall not be less than ten per cent of the market value of the land acquired8 the central government shall provide adequate funds to the authority for meeting the expenditure relating to its offices, infrastructure and for implementing the provisions of this actcentral government to provide adequate fundspower to remove difficulty9 if any difficulty arises in implementing the provisions of this act, the central government shall have power to issue such orders not inconsistent with the provisions of this act by notification in the official gazette as are required to remove such difficultypower to make rules510 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of the act10(2) every rule made under this act shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both the houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule statement  of objects and reasonsas a result of population explosion, the pressure on resources of earth is on a constant increase year after year at present the size of rural population is more than 70 crore about two decades ago 185 crore hectare of land catered to the requirements of almost 80 crore people but the present scenario is that 18 crore 29 lakh hectares of land is catering to the needs of nearly 120 crore people with increase in population and stagnant land availability, the food  security may no longer be there surveys conducted by planning commission, national sample survery organisation (nsso) and other agencies have all confirmed that size  of arable land in the country is shrinking because fertile land is being sacrificed in the name of urbanization and industrialisation we are already witnessing that more and more farmers are turning landlessthere is no sensitization on the part of either planners or the government towards the fact that fertile land is a finite resource and needs to be conserved that is why, the per capita land availability which was 027 hectare in 1980 has come down to less than 020 hectare now what is truly surprising is the fact that most of the new urbanization or industrialisation is happening on land that is cultivable whereas the barren land which is about 77 crore hectare remains untouched  it would have been more practical and less damaging if this land was used for urbanization and industrialisation but the governments keep on acquiring cultivable land for non-agricultural purposes the problem is compounded when it is realized that about 19 lakh acres of land is under litigation and 20 lakh acres of land is to be distributed under the land reforms actson the one hand per capita land availability is declining, on the other hand almost32 per cent population of the country is landless the concept of special economic zones (sezs) is likely to make lakhs of farmers landless as per an estimate, 3 lakh hectares of land is to be acquired for sezs most of this land is likely to be acquired from the farmers the acquisition of agricultural land is already causing dissatisfaction amongst farmers and at many places the protests have turned violent the decline in agricultural land may give rise to a number of problems such as the question of food security, increase in import of foodgrains and resultant dependence on other countries for our foodgrain requirements therefore, it is wrong to acquire agricultural land for non-agricultural purposesit is felt that legislation is needed to monitor and regulate the process of land acquisition in the country therefore, a bill is proposed to set up an agricultural land acquisition regulatory authority with a view to put a stop to acquisition of agricultural land for other purposes unless it is absolutely essentialhence this billnew delhi;hansraj  gangaramji  ahirapril 18, 2007 financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides for the setting up of a land acquisition regulatory authority clause 4 provides for composition of the authority clasue 5 provides that the authority shall perform a number of functions including collection of data on agricultural land clause 6 provides that the authority shall issue no-objection certificate before any acquisition of land is made clause 8 provides that the central government shall provide adequate funds to the authority for implementing the provisions of this actthe bill, therefore, if enacted  would involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india  it is estimated that a recurring expenditure of rupees one hundred crore would be involveda non-recurring expenditure of about rupees ten crore is also likely to be involved memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 10 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the provisions of the bill the rules will relate to matters of detail only therefore, the delegation of legislative power is of a normal character————— a billto provide for the constitution of an agricultural land acquisition regulatory authority for the purpose of regulation of land acquisition in the country and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto—————(shri hansraj gangaramji ahir, mp)mgipmrnd—1962ls(s5)—07-05-2007