Protecting Multi-Crop Land: Section 10 Of The RFCTLARR Act, 2013 And Food Security In An Age Of Highways
Banveer Kaur Jhinger, Assistant Professor of Law, University Institute of Laws, Panjab University Regional Centre, Ludhiana
ABSTRACT
Fertile farmland is limited. It feeds the nation. But land is also needed for roads and highways. When fertile land is taken for a highway, it is lost for farming forever. This is a threat to food security. The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 has a special safeguard for such land. It is Section 10. This section says that irrigated multi-cropped land should not be acquired. But the safeguard has a large gap. It does not apply to linear projects like highways and railways. There is also a second gap. Most highways are acquired under the National Highways Act, 1956. That law is kept outside the 2013 Act. So the food-security safeguard does not reach highway projects at all. This paper studies Section 10 in simple terms. It explains what the safeguard promises. It shows the two gaps that let highways escape. It uses the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway in Punjab as an example. The paper then asks a simple question. Is the safeguard on fertile land working in practice? It concludes that the safeguard is weak where it is needed most.
Keywords: Food security; multi-crop irrigated land; Section 10; RFCTLARR Act, 2013; linear projects; National Highways Act, 1956; Bharatmala.
