A provision in the law is going to impact a large number of people who have been protesting against acquisition of land for decades

The land Bill to be tabled in Parliament this week would renew hope for ‘victims’ of many a pending land acquisition case, forcing project owners to pay fresh compensation to evacuees. It is also feared that it would open a Pandora’s Box of litigation, as well as reopen cases that are decades old. The provision in Clause 24 of the law is going to impact a large number of people who have been protesting against acquisition of their land for decades, in places such as Chhindwara and the Narmada valley in Madhya Pradesh and also in Odisha, not to mention Uttar Pradesh’s Bhatta-Parsaul, a place whose cause was taken up by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi himself. Hence, the Bill is set to be a pre-election bonanza for many aggrieved people.