Land acquisition bill: Government fields ministers to defend 'U-turn'

NEW DELHI: The NDA government's land acquisition Bill was mired in controversies since its very inception with many within the Modi cabinet and the BJP having serious objections to its intent to remove he consent and social impact assessment clauses as they eared this would lead to a serious backlash from farmers and andowners.

On the last day of the third Land Ordinance being in force, government fielded union ministers Chaudhary Birendra Singh and Nirmala Sitharaman to convey that the Modi dispensation has not done a "U-turn" on the issue. But the two mainly harped on how incorporating the 13 central Acts hrough an executive order would benefit the farmers whose land would be acquired or projects related to atomic energy, railways and the like.

The way out decided by the Centre now is to leave it to the state governments to make heir own land acquisition aws. Taking a jibe at BJP's po itical opponents, Singh said: "We will have to see if the states will continue with the consent clause in the land Acts."

He argued that the NDA government wanted to remove the social impact assessment clause ­ along with the consent clause ­ as "it takes up to 59 months to acquire land" if this process is followed. Under hese provisions, the consent of at least 80% of landowners is required to acquire land for private industries and social-impact studies are compulsory .

Meanwhile, the BJP has already agreed to bring back these two clauses in a meeting of the joint committee of Parliament.

Sitharaman maintained that allowing the Ordinance to lapse "was not a setback" and this is being done to end the stalemate, but many BJP leaders had for the past few months been talking about the increasing political cost of the Bill.

"We will deal with the land Bill after the Bihar elections," a minister had told ET during the monsoon session of Parliament.