Soon Biometric check for compensation transfer for land acquisition in National Highway projects

NEW DELHI: Government will roll out biometric authentication through Aadhaar for transferring compensation for land acquisition in highway projects, aiming to ensure that actual landowners receive the amount directly in their bank accounts eliminating any lapses. Under this mechanism, the compensation will be transferred to land owners’ accounts instantly after OTP-based biometric authentication is complete.

Highways agencies under the road transport ministry are carrying out a pilot in five states — Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Karnataka. This initiative is significant considering that the largest share of land acquisition for public purpose is done for highway development in the country.

During the current financial year, around Rs 19,800 crore has been disbursed for the acquisition of 10,100 hectares for highway development by different agencies, people aware of the development said. The pace of highway construction and building of greenfield highways have pushed the land acquisition in recent years.

They added that years back the designated authority for land acquisition and disbursement, CALA (competent authority for land acquisition), used to hand over the cheques to the land owners, but this was changed and the money was directly transferred to the bank accounts of land owners. “The new mechanism will eliminate any chance of the compensation going to any account other than that of the land owners as the OTP-based biometric authentication established the identity of the actual land owner,” said an official.
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