Land Acquisition Act: A Neo-Liberal Version of its Colonial Counterpart?

Even though the new Right to Fair Compensation And Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 looks good on paper, does it actually represent a sea change in land acquisition policies that our Government would have us believe? The neo-liberal Act continues to utilize outdated conceptions of 'eminent domain' to permit forcible acquisitions for a broad variety of purposes. In fact, it could be termed as nothing more than a Act to ease the transfer of land to private entities. Newsclick discusses with economist Smitha Gupta the flaws in the Act.