The Government on Saturday decided to re-promulgate the controversial land Ordinance for the third time, saying it is necessary for maintaining continuity and providing a framework to compensate people whose land is acquired. The move comes even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interview, has said that the contentious legislation was neither “a matter of life and death” for him nor was the agenda of his party and Government.
“The Cabinet has approved again the land Acquisition Ordinance to maintain continuity. The Bill is before the Joint Committee (of Parliament) and the old Ordinance will lapse on June 3,” Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. He said that the re-promulgation was necessary as the amendments to the 2013 Act include 13 Central Acts for ensuring compensation to farmers whose land is acquired for certain types of projects.
Prasad clarified that the fresh Ordinance will be a copy of that and has no new provisions or changes. Modi said the opposition to the land Bill is “totally unjustified and unfortunate” arguing that the Government has not made any changes for private industry. “We have made changes only in response to demands of the States. The benefits of these changes will also accrue to the rural poor in terms of irrigation, housing, electrification, as well as better physical and social infrastructure,” he said.
Attacking Congress, he said, “What about the law which has been in existence since 1893 and which the Congress used to acquire land for 60 yearsIJ How can those who used an archaic, bad law for 60 years, talk about another law being anti-farmerIJ Those who used the old law and forced three lakh farmers to commit suicides don’t have even one per cent moral right to talk about farmers.”
“State Chief Ministers insisted for a change saying the old Bill would not help them. I, as the head of the federal Government, thought of addressing their anxieties… Not one decision taken in respect of the law is anti-farmer,” The Tribune quoted him as having said. Following the Cabinet nod, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi reacted through Twitter saying: “Modi in an amazing hurry to grab land from poor farmers at any cost. A third attempt at pushing the anti-farmer land Ordinance! Congress party will continue to fight for the rights of the kisan and mazdoor against this #suitbootkisarkar”.
The Ordinance was promulgated for the first time in December last year to amend the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. The Ordinance was replaced by a Bill. Despite being passed in lok Sabha with 10 official amendments, the Government has not taken it to Rajya Sabha as it lacks numbers there.
The Ordinance was re-promulgated in March this year and lapses on June 3. In order to re-promulgate the Ordinance, Government had prorogued Rajya Sabha during the Budget session. Once cleared, this will be the second Ordinance to have been brought out three times in the recent past. The SEBI amendment Ordinance was issued thrice under the previous UPA Government.
