New Delhi :The lower house of the Indian Parliament passed the amended Land Acquisition Bill on Tuesday after the government told the Opposition it was ready to accept its suggestions. Parliament had been seeing a standoff between the ruling party and the opposition. The Congress, BJD and TRS walked out of the House during the proceedings.
Ahead of the voting on the contentious bill, the government indicated its willingness to incorporate more changes into the bill in order to address the concerns raised by Opposition parties and proposed 9 amendments.
The amendments most of which were to neutralize the pro corporate sector clauses vs the farmers rights had triggered the stand off between the government and the opposition.Proposal included restricting land for industrial corridors, putting in place a hassle-free mechanism for grievance redressal and removing the exemption to social infrastructure projects in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
The original act required the consent of at least 70% of land owners in the area where land is to be acquired for such projects.
“After consultations with the cross section of society, including political parties, farmers’ organisations and various other agriculture-related organisations, we have brought these amendments,” rural development minister Chaudhary Birender Singh told PTI.
Indicating that the government was ready to make further changes in interest of farmers in the bill, the minister said that some of the amendments had already been moved by the Opposition.
The land bill was debated in the Lok Sabha on Monday and Tuesday before being passed.
The NDA government had already circulated the list of amendments it plans to bring. It has proposed substantial changes to the controversial land acquisition bill to seek wider support from an agitated opposition which had slammed the amendments to the 2013 act, calling it “anti-farmer”.
Government sources said that all eight allies of NDA, including the Shiv Sena and Akali Dal, expressed solidarity with the government on land issues at a meeting convened by parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu before the house convened on Tuesday.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley, along with Naidu and Singh, briefed the leaders on the land bill and the amendments moved by the government to address their concerns.
Rural development minister Singh gave details of the proposed amendments in the land bill to be brought by the government.
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