ri    lt re and ood       ana ement          8.9
              transactions will especially help small and  to leasing and acquisition. By 2015, the new
              medium enterprises that do not have the      government at the Centre proposed a new land bill
              legal support or the management capacity     (Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in
              that large enterprises have.                 Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement
        (iii) Prohibitory land leasing norms raises the    Bill, 2015), which aimed at removing the
              cost to rural-urban migration, as villagers  inadequacies of the Land Act of 2013. The Bill is
              are unable to lease their land, and often    being opposed by the political parties belonging
              have to leave the land untilled or leave a   to the opposition (it is still to be passed by the
              family member behind to work on the          Parliament, though the government has done
              land. Lifting these restrictions can help    around ten amendments to it). The country cannot
              the landless (or more efficient landowners)  afford to compromise the economic security of
              get land from those who migrate, even        land owners (farmers) in the process of evolving
              while it will allow landowners with          a speedier process of land acquisition—the law
              education and skills to move to industry     dealing with it should be transparent, justified,
              or services.                                 effective and speedier, too.
        (iv) Compulsory registration of leaseholds and          Finer points of this PHASE can be summed
              of the owner’s title would provide tenants   up in the following way:17
              and landowners protection. For such a              (i) Leasing seems a better choice in face of
              leasing market to take off, owners should               farmer’s opposition seen in recent times
              be confident that long-term tenancy                     in different states toward attempts at land
              would not lead to their losing ownership.               acquisition. Again, if the country needs
              With a vibrant leasing market, and clear                to attract investment from the organised
              title, there should be little reason for not            private sector (domestic or foreign) land
              strengthening ownership rights.                         leasing seems a better option than land
         (v) For large projects with a public purpose,                acquisition.
              such as the National Industrial and              (ii) Corporate farming has not taken place in
              Manufacturing Zones, which will                         the country in a big scale, especially in
              facilitate the setting up of small and                  the areas of foodgrains production, which
              medium enterprises, large-scale land                    India needs to ensure food security and
              acquisition may be necessary.                           compete in the global grain market, in
        (vi) Given that the people currently living on                particular, and the agri-market in general.
              the identified land will suffer significant             This has become even more important in
              costs including the loss of property and                the wake of the Right to Food given to a
              livelihoods, a balance has to be drawn                  large segment of the population.
              between the need for economic growth            (iii) Giving primacy to ‘leasing’ will solve
              and the costs imposed on the displaced.                 several problems:
          Moving onwards, the Government of India                     (a) It will keep land ownership in the
     passed the Land Acquisition Bill, 2013. The bill,                     hands of the existing farmers;
     besides proposing to amend the Land Acquisition,
     Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2011 proposed      17.    The discussion is based on several volumes of
                                                                    the Economic Survey and India published by the
     to put in place a transparent, effective and speedy            Government of India between the period 2010 to 2017
     laws regarding the need of land reforms related                and the 12th Plan.