Coimbatore: The Coimbatore Consumer and Multi Service Organisation has urged the Union Law Commission to bring in land owner-friendly amendments to the Land Acquisition Act of 1894. President of the Organisation N. Jagannathan in a memorandum pointed out that such amendments would enable the value of the land under acquisition proceedings be fixed based on the prevailing market value either by a committee led by a retired High Court Judge or a retired District Judge. As per the section 11 (ii) of the Land Acquisition Act, the official in charge was fixing the value of the land as per his opinion. This led to land owners getting a very poor compensation compared to the market value of the land. If adequate compensation was ensured at the time of acquisition of the land, instances of litigations piling up before the courts would come down drastically. Appeal to Chief Justice Referring to the appeal of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Law Minister seeking to bring down the backlog of cases, Mr. Jagannathan pointed out that Land Acquisition Act itself was proving to be a major reason for increasing litigations and backlog of cases. He also urged for referring or transferring these cases to special courts and Lok Adalats for speedy disposal. In the case of land acquisition for the Bharathiar University nearly 1,200 acres were acquired at the rate of Rs 5,000 an acre. Compensation The aggrieved farmers citing that the compensation was inadequate approached the court and on October 29, 2007, the court awarded a compensation of Rs. 2,600 per one cent of land. The settlement was supposed to include 30 per cent incentive and from the date of 4 (1) land acquisition notification till the date of settlement of compensation, a sum of 12 per cent interest had to be disbursed and the affected parties would have to be given 15 per cent interest per year. However, even after nearly two years of judgment, the compensation had not been given to the land owners. Even the notification that those giving away their land for the University will get one employment per family had not been fulfilled. In spite of repeated representations to all, there had not been any relief yet for those who lost their land to the University. The memorandum also pointed out the inordinate delay in disbursement of lease rent arrears to the owners of lands that were taken on lease. Similarly, there is a proposal for acquiring nearly 1,000 acres for expanding the airport.