As the land Acquisition Bill evoked stiff opposition within and outside Parliament, members of BJP parliamentary board on Monday sought to revisit controversial “exclusions,” particularly those relating to obtaining the “consent” of land owners and Social Impact Assessment (SIA) provisions aimed at taking care of those “affected” by the projects. The Bill to replace the contentious land Acquisition Ordinance will be introduced by the Modi Government in the lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Senior BJP leaders “informally” met at Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence here to discuss provisions in the land Ordinance which have been strongly protested by Opposition parties and a range of other organisations. “Party president Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh will brief the Prime Minister after this discussion to take the issue forward,” said senior Minister Ananth Kumar after the three-hour-long meeting.
“The Home Minister will continue discussions with NGOs on land Ordinance on Tuesday,” he said. Kumar said the meeting considered “all the points” raised by farmers and will frame its response after consulting all stakeholders. Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh will introduce the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 in the lower House.
It will replace the Ordinance promulgated by the Government in December last year, which had brought changes in the earlier Bill passed in 2013 by the UPA Government. Meanwhile, setting in motion the process of replacing Ordinances relating to coal mines, e-rickshaws and FDI in insurance with fresh Bills, the Government has listed for the withdrawal of old Bills in the Rajya Sabha. Earlier, in an attempt to remove “serious doubts” of those arrayed against the land Bill, Singh met representatives connected with Gandhian activist Anna Hazare and assured them that the Government was ready to look into their genuine demands.
Members of Ekta Parishad, an organisation connected with Hazare’s anti-land Ordinance stir here visited Singh at his residence and put forth their grievances to him Besides Hazare, the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and Swadeshi Jagran Manch have also asked for changes in the Government’s Ordinance. Ekta Parishad’s convener Ramesh Sharma met Rajnath Singh for about 30 minutes and apprised him of their grievances.
The Home Minister assured him that a meeting of the land Reforms Council would soon be convened which will take up the concerns of landless labourers and agriculturalists. Through the Presidential address, the Government defended the Ordinance saying it “attaches paramount importance to safeguard interests of farmers and families affected by land acquisition”. It said the Act has been “suitably refined to minimize certain procedural difficulties in acquisition of land inevitably required for critical infrastructure projects and creating basic amenities.”
The land Acquisition Ordinance had done away with the requirement of written consent from 70 per cent of land owners for Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) projects in the infrastructure and social infrastructure sectors. Also, social impact assessment was not required for such projects. PPP projects, according to an estimate, account for 60 per cent of the Rs 18 lakh crore worth of stalled projects in the country.
According to the Ordinance which the Modi Government would want to convert into an Act in the current session, the mandatory “consent” clause and SIA will not be applicable if the land is acquired for Defence, rural infrastructure including electrification, industrial corridors and housing for the poor including PPP where ownership of land continues to be vested with the Government.
Also whether the land is fertile or not will also not be taken into consideration while acquiring it for these five specific sectors. Defending the Ordinance, the Government maintained that a number of States including those run by the Congress have conveyed to it that it was “very difficult” to acquire land for even social or health projects and thereby “virtually blocking the development”.
Pointing as pro-farmer provisions in the Bill, the Government said it has widened scope of rehabilitation, resettlement and compensation provisions by including 13 so far excluded Acts under the land Acquisition Act. On SIA, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Manipur all demanded that the process be restricted to only large projects.