10 CMs to skip NITI Aayog meeting on land bill

After sticking to its guns in the Parliamentary panel, the Congress has decided to take its battle against the amendments to the land acquisition law to the NITI Aayog.

The chief ministers of Congress-ruled states are mulling over boycotting a meeting to discuss the amendments to the land bill convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 15 under the aegis of the NITI Aayog.

The Congress has steadfastly opposed any amendments to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act that was passed by the then UPA-II government in 2013.

The Modi government had in December 2014 promulgated an Ordinance notifying changes to the law that had made land acquisition easier. The move kicked up a controversy with the Congress taking the lead against any amendments to the law in the passage of which Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had taken personal interest.

The Centre has been unable to get the amendments passed by Parliament in the three-month long Budget Session and was forced to re-issue the Ordinance twice. Knowing that the amendments would be defeated in the Rajya Sabha, where the NDA is in minority, the land bill was referred to a Joint Committee of Parliament.

The Congress leaders have further toughened their stand at the Committee meeting, demanding equal compensation for land acquired in both rural and urban areas. The law passed by the UPA-II has provisions for payment of twice the circle rate of land in urban areas.

For rural areas, the price of the land is fixed at four times the circle rate. In a letter to the Committee, Congress members have demanded that the compensation in both rural and urban areas should be four times that of the circle rates.