Farmers’ organisations on Monday asked Parliamentary Joint Committee to include Social Impact Assessment (SIA) in the land Bill with some of them seeking widening of the scope of consent clause to include all forms of land acquisitions in the country. Representatives of several organisations, including National Alliance for Farmers Movement (NAFM), National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), All India Coordination Committee of Farmers, Bhartiya Kisan Union (A) and Shetkari Sangathan, presented themselves before the Committee of Parliament which is looking into the contentious provisions of the bill.
The committee which is headed by BJP lok Sabha member SS Ahluwalia is to continue its scrutiny of the bill until next month and hear out views of a total of 300 organizations. The panel is holding two meetings each week and hopes to submit its recommendations in the beginning of the Monsoon session of the Parliament.
The NAFM made nine suggestions to the panel including land for land, house for house and employment for employment arrangements in rehabilitation of those affected by land acquisition. It demanded that suggestions should be incorporated in the new land Bill of NDA. Speaking against the changes brought in 2013 land bill of the UPA dispensation, Medha Patkar, representing NAPM, cited her ‘experiences’ of the controversial Narmada projects and sought that SIA and consent of farmers for all projects was necessary to protect latter’s interests.