4. At this stage, it may be noticed that RFCTLARR Act, 2013 which came into force w.e.f. January 01, 2014 repealed the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 and provided for „rehabilitation and resettlement mechanism‟ for the project affected persons and their families, on displacement from the acquired land. The same required an assessment of economic disadvantages and ‘social impact’ arising out of displacement and aimed at holistic improvement of all round living standard of the affected persons and families due to acquisition of land, in terms of Chapter II of the RFCTLARR Act, 2013. As provided under Section 9 of the RFCTLARR Act, 2013, the authorized government may exempt undertaking of the Social Impact Assessment Study, if the land is proposed to be acquired under the urgency provisions under Section 40 of the said Act. Also, Section 10 of the Act dealing with special provisions to safeguard food security, exempted the application of said provision in case of projects that are linear in nature, such as those relating to Railways, Highways, major District Roads, Irrigation Canals, Power Lines and Light. It may also be noticed that RFCTLARR (Social Impact Assessment and Consent) Rules, 2014 were notified w.e.f. August 08, 2014 under Section 109 of the RFCTLARR Act, 2013.
