All-party meet fails to reach consensus on land bill

With the all party meeting on the Land Acquisition Bill failing to arrive at a consensus, the government on Thursday decided to send the draft of the proposed legislation to the leaders concerned for and discuss their suggestions in the next meeting.

Amid concerns expressed by some members about certain provisions of the bill, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath and Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said copies of the Bill will be sent to all the parties so that they can be perused before the next meeting, scheduled on March 20.

Jairam Ramesh told the meeting that the amendments to the Bill have come down to 28 and the government is confident of its smooth passage in the on-going session.

However, SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav said population explosion is exacerbating the problem of land availability, multi-crop yielding agricultural land should not be used for housing and other purposes. 

The Left parties, which had earlier moved more than a hundred amendments to the Bill, said the government had recently circulated over 180 amendments, most of which had not been recommended by the Standing Committee.

“This makes it a case fit for referring the legislation to the Standing Committee or the Select Committee, which can study these amendments and submit a report to the House in the ongoing Budget session itself after the break,” CPM's Basudeb Acharia said after the meeting.