The Centre on Wednesday made a strong pitch for the implementation of the land Acquisition Bill, but there were a few takers among the Opposition for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to end political deadlock over the Bill at the NITI Ayog meeting on Wednesday. To end the logjam, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley suggested that since several States have now opposed the Bill, it should be left to them to bring their own legislation if a national consensus could not be arrived on the Bill.
While Chief Ministers of the Congress-ruled States skipped the meeting, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal opposed the Bill. Apart from nine Congress Chief Ministers, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu’s J Jayalalithaa, Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik and Uttar Pradesh’s Akhilesh Yadav too were the notable absentees in the meeting. However, in addition to CMs of the BJP-ruled States, left-ruled Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar was present in the meeting. So was the Jammu & Kashmir CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
In his written submission, Jayalalithaa opposed the move. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who is an ally of the BJP, also cautioned the Government about the adverse impact of the Bill on farmers and said no land should be acquired without the consent of farmers and land owners and social impact assessment should apply to all acquisitions.
CMs of the BJP-ruled States, including Anandiben Patel, Raman Singh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, and Raghubar Das, welcomed the Bill saying it was well considered and practical and provisions like mandatory employment to affected families would ensure justice.
In his address, the Prime Minister said that the deadlock over the land Acquisition Bill was seriously impacting rural development and appealed to the CMs not to come in the way of prosperity of farmers. Stressing that the Centre and States must move together to end poverty, the Prime Minister said, “the political deadlock over land acquisition is seriously impacting rural development, including the creation of schools, hospitals, roads and irrigation projects.”
Observing that there was no difference between the Centre and States on paying enhanced compensation, the PM said, “political considerations should not come in the way of a solution that would facilitate development of rural areas, and greater prosperity for farmers”. Extending an olive branch, Modi remarked that ahead of the upcoming Parliament Session, it was appropriate that the suggestions of States are listened once again.
Providing a written speech in the meeting, Jayalalithaa said they can’t agree with the new provisions in the Bill helping land acquisition for private hospital and educational firms. “Even at the very beginning, we were firm on the principle that the concept of ‘eminent domain’ should not be invoked for acquisition of land for use by private companies as was proposed in the original Bill.
“I had also strongly opposed the amendment proposed in the (NDA government’s) Ordinance that the consent clause should not cover land acquisition for private hospitals and private educational institutions,” she said.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the boycotting Chief Ministers to introspect whether not attending the meeting was in consonance with the spirit of cooperative federalism. Jaitley said an “overwhelming” section of the States felt that they cannot indefinitely wait for a consensus on the amendments to the land Bill. “They are keen to bring their own legislations,” he told a media briefing after the CMs meet.
“If the Centre fails to approve this (bill) with consensus, then it should be left to the states. Those states which want to develop fast...Can suggest their own state legislations and Centre (would) approve that state legislation. An overwhelming section gave this kind of suggestion,” he said.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said they could not support the Bill with so many provisions to help the private players. “The State Government opposes any attempt to dilute, nullify or tamper with the letter and spirit of the 2013 Act in its original form,” he said.
Kumar said, “Substitution of term ‘private company’ by term ‘private entity’, removal of the consent clause, exemption from social impact assessment and special provisions for safeguarding food security in the process of land acquisition and relaxation in the time limit for return of the unutilised acquired land are not in public interest.”
While raising concerns on Centre’s “inference” in several issues of Delhi state, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal put forth his reservations on the bill. “He also said that centre’s interference in Delhi was against coop federalism,” Kejriwal tweeted.