"The additional outgo for the non-coal miners after the passage of the new legislation would be around Rs 4,500 crore. As per the industry estimates, Coal India alone may have to shell out about Rs 1,000 crore a year for the proposed fund" Dinsha Patel, Union Minister of State for Mines

During September 2011, the Union Government introduced policy reforms for mining, land acquisition and PPP projects in the country. The bills cleared during the month include Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Bill (MMDR); National Land Acquisition and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill 2(LARR); and National Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Policy.

The MMDR Bill 2011, cleared in September 2011 aims to bring in transparency and equity that is rife with illegal activities. The move is an effective step towards regulating mining activities in the country through profit-sharing and bidding of mining rights. As per the new mining bill, coal miners will have to share a maximum 26 per cent of their post-tax profit for the welfare of affected people, and other miners, an amount equivalent to royalties. Also, it proposes to create a Mineral Development Fund in every district, in which profit and royalty shared by miners will be deposited and spent on the local population and area development. The bill also envisages improving the legislative environment to attract investment and technology in the mining sector. The bill specifies imposition of cess -10 per cent to state governments and 2.5 per cent to the government on the total royalty paid, besides punitive provisions to prevent illegal mining.

Another highlight was the government approving LARR Bill, 2011. Unlike an earlier Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, the new bill stresses on rehabilitation and resettlement of those who are uprooted from their land and provides for compensation not only to farmers and land owners but to the people who live off the land so acquired. "A 117-year-old law will be changed through this bill", said Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of Rural Development. The bill now allows acquisition of multi-cropped irrigated land for linear projects of the government and up to five per cent of the irrigated land in a particular district. In the earlier version, the government had proposed a total ban on acquisition of irrigated land to which several States, including West Bengal had opposed.

Meanwhile, the government has released the draft of a PPP policy. It will release a separate mandatory disclosure norms for projects and set up a dedicated dispute resolution mechanism to address issues related to bidding and award of PPP projects. The policy discusses risk allocation between the public and private; says every PPP project will be examined at the Union Government level, even where no capital subsidy is expected to obtain clearance from the relevant authorities. The oversight will extend to the manner of selection of the private entity procedures observed in releasing payments from time to time and review of quality of service.

On the state level, the West Bengal Cabinet approved the newly drafted LARR Bill for the state. The revised bill states that the private companies will have to acquire land for their projects directly from the land owners. The state government will acquire land only for projects of public utility like building bridges, hospitals, laying railway tracks, setting up of embankments, irrigation projects and projects relating to internal security. The landowners are rendered homeless because the acquisition will get Rs 1.5 lakh for building new house, a government job to a member of the family that has lost its land, and a one-time payout of Rs 2 lakh. In case members of a family are ineligible for a government job, the state government will provide monthly family pension for twenty years. for further detaisl visit www.projectstoday.com