The Joint Committee of Parliament on the controversial land Acquisition Bill, meeting for the first time on Friday, decided to fasttrack its proceedings and send letters to Chief Secretaries of all the States and organisations representing farmers besides all others having a stake in the issue to submit their suggestions to the panel by June 5.
According to sources, the Committee will be meeting every week on Monday and Tuesday and “undertake in-depth scrutiny” of all the clauses in the Bill, particularly those which were in the eye of storm in the last session of Parliament.
The 30-member panel, headed by BJP MP SS Ahluwalia, would sit for deliberations on June 8 and June 9.
Sources said, the first meeting saw Vandana Kumari Jena, Secretary of Department of land Resources “read out mistakes and errors” in 2013 land Acquisition Bill.
Ahluwalia, the Rural Development Ministry and legislative Department in the law Ministry made a presentation to members on the amendments made to the RsThe Right To Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013’- the official title of the land Bill.
At the meeting, Opposition Congress, BJD, TMC and left members raised questions over the logic of the Government changing provisions of the 2013 land law and removing consent and social impact assessment, sources said.
The 2013 Act required that a social impact assessment be conducted to identify affected families and calculate the social impact when land is acquired. This provision has been done away with. The 2013 land law also required that the consent of 80 per cent of land owners was obtained for private projects and that the consent of 70 per cent of land owners be obtained for PPP projects
Not happy with the Government’s arguments in favour of the Bill, the Opposition members demanded a “composite” inter-ministerial reply on the issue.
Some members also wanted more clarity on land acquisition for industrial corridors.
The committee seeks to wrap the proceedings before the beginning of the Monsoon Session and adopt it by July 29, the probable date for the start of the next session.
There are six weeks in between and hence, meetings will take place for six weeks, sources said. The committee has sought to give advertisement to elicit people’s response and suggestions on the Bill.