Trying to turn the tables on the Congress, the BJP on Monday said it was not the Government which did the U-turn on the land Bill but the Opposition party which it charged with playing “politics of opportunism”.
Addressing a joint Press conference here, Union Ministers Birendra Singh and Nirmala Seetharaman said the BJP brought all parties on board on the contentious land Bill and discussed it in all ways which are available in a parliamentary democracy. They charged the Congress of making a U-turn after Congress-ruled Chief Ministers pointed out that the land Bill of 2013 by the UPA Government required amendments as it was difficult to acquire land under consent and Social Impact Assessment clauses.
Singh said it would be interesting to see how Congress-ruled States implement the land Bill with the consent clause for acquitting land for various projects. He, however, said each State under the concurrent list may approach the land acquisition in its own way.
Speaking on the land issue, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the decision to let the land acquisition Ordinance to lapse is not a setback for the Government and the alternative route adopted by the Centre will provide greater flexibility to the States to deal with the issue.
“I won’t call it a setback. It is set forward. Rather than involve ourselves in political stalemate and remain parked in a traffic jam situation, we take the alternative route, which has lesser political cost, allow greater flexibility to the states... And states who want to get benefit out of it, get the benefit out of it,” Jaitley said in an interview to a news channel.
Earlier last week, the Government had issued an order to include 13 Central Acts like National Highway and Tailways Acts to extend benefits to those whose land is acquired under the land law.
Jaitley said rather than allowing the parliamentary stalemate to carry on, the Centre followed an alternative route which will give flexibility to States to change land Acquisition laws as per their requirement. Replying to queries on GST Bill, which is held up in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister said he was in touch with the Congress.