(Annexure to the Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No.3847 dated 30.4.2010)

The steps taken by Government of India for prevention of use of agricultural land for non-agricultural uses:-

a) National Policy for Farmers 2007 (NPF, 2007): The National Policy for Farmers 2007 envisages that Prime farmland must be conserved for agriculture except under exceptional circumstances, provided that the agencies that are provided with agricultural land for non-agricultural projects should compensate for treatment and full development of equivalent degraded / wastelands elsewhere. State governments have been advised to earmark lands with low biological potential such as uncultivable land, land affected by salinity, acidity, etc., for non-agricultural development activities, including industrial and construction activities.

b) National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007 (NRRP, 2007): A National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007 has been formulated by Ministry of Rural Development, Department of Land Resources which came into effect on 31.10.2007. The policy provides that only the minimum area of land commensurate with the purpose of a project may be acquired. Also, as far as possible, projects may be set up on wasteland, degraded land or un-irrigated land. Acquisition of agricultural land for non-agricultural use in the project may be kept to the minimum; multi-cropped land may be avoided to the extent possible for such purposes and acquisition of irrigated land, if unavoidable, may be kept to the minimum. The Policy has been sent to the States/UTs for implementation.

c) Policy in case of SEZ: Government of India, Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MOCI) have constituted an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) under the Chairmanship of Shri Pranab Mukherjee, the then Hon’ble Minister of Defence to consider the issues related to SEZs and the EGOM at its meeting held on 5^th April 2007 recommended that:

Ø In respect of pending applications for SEZs , these may be processed for in-principle, formal approval and, notifications subject to the conditions that the state Government would not undertake any compulsory acquisition of land for such SEZs.

Ø Upper limit of the area required for multi product SEZs to be fixed at 5000 ha. However, State Governments may prescribe a lower limit.

Ø A comprehensive Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy be worked out ensuring livelihood from the project to at least one person from each displaced family.

Based on the above recommendations, Government of India has decided that Board of approval (BoA) will not approve any SEZs where the State Governments have carried out or propose to carry out compulsory acquisition of land for such SEZs after 5^th April 2007. However, cases in which all persons interested in the land either have not submitted any objection under Section-5A or have withdrawn the objections submitted and have thus acquiesced in the proposed acquisition of land may be considered. In other cases, where there are objections under Section-5A, the Collector/ Acquiring Authority may not proceed with the acquisition for the purpose of SEZ and such cases, if any, brought before the Board of Approval may not be considered.