Govt to digitize land acquisition process for coal mines as Net Zero looms

livemint.com:

New Delhi: The government plans to launch a dedicated portal for land acquisition for coal mining, said two people aware of the development, citing the biggest pain point in India’s push for the fossil fuel. The coal ministry portal will digitize records in the land acquisition process, including approvals for acquisitions and disbursal of compensation to the displaced. "The land acquisition process will be completely digitized now with the 'Coal Land Acquisition and Management Portal, CLAMP'.

The aim is to help in the submission of proposals for land acqusition, process those applications and approve them online," said one of the people mentioned above said. Further, the processing of rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) benefits which include monetary compensation and resettlement of the displaced would also be carried out through the portal, the person added. Another person said the process of replacing the human interface with the web portal has been modelled on the 'BhoomiRashi' portal of the road ministry, which has helped accelerate the land acquisition processes for roads and highways.

"Apart from bringing in ease in the processes, the objective is also to bring in transparency. There will be complete visibility of who are the people displaced in each and every village and the status of the compensation they have got or would receive," said the second person. Land acquisition, displacements and rehabilitation of the local people have been major subjects of public discourse over the years.