New draft Land Acquisition bill likely to see modification

KOLKATA: The new draft Land Acquisition Bill is likely to see some modifications to clarify certain points, union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said after a meeting with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's advisor on land related matters.

Stating that he received a lot of useful suggestions from the advisor, Debabrata Bandopadhyay, the union minister said "There are some points we need to clarify."

Ramesh who had a two-hour meeting with Bandhopadhyay, said "he has given me a lot of useful suggestions. There are certain issues he has raised."

Though the land under the draft Land Acquisition Bill would not be acquired for private purpose, but in certain circumstances the state could acquire it where private enterprises worked for public purpose, Ramesh said.

"The draft bill provides for land acquisition by the state for private parties working for public purpose like railway or port projects," Ramesh said.

Ramesh said that land would, however, "not be acquired for private parties working on private enterprise."

The minister said that the draft bill would be published online for getting feedback from the people.

Bandopadhyay, however, remained non-committal on the issue. "Let us see what comes up in the draft Bill."

Last night, after a meeting with Ramesh, the chief minister had said that this draft bill was better than the earlier one, but she was yet to go into the details.