Several UPA ministers had sparred with Jairam Ramesh on land law
finance minister Arun Jaitley regretted that as opposition leader, he did not follow the bill closely on Ramesh's assurances.
By TNN | Updated:
NEW DELHI: UPA's land acquisition Act was marked by intense, long-drawn out bargaining between economic ministries and rural development minister Jairam Ramesh for exemptions, a fact that has put the Congress manager in the thick of government-opposition clash over the law. Ramesh is now leading the Congress campaign against BJP's bid to dilute the land law.
While the Centre on Thursday cited a letter from former commerce minister Anand Sharma seeking exemption for industrial corridors as evidence that Congress's land law was a hurdle for growth, the fact is Sharma had asked for exemption also for SEZs, which was not accepted.
It was not just between Sharma and Ramesh. The land law witnessed a bruising battle between economic and infrastructure ministers and Ramesh over striking a balance between growth and farmers' interests.
At one point, when inter-ministerial discussions failed, five ministers — Kamal Nath, C P Joshi, Veerappa Moily, Sharma and Sriprakash Jaiswal — joined hands in a Cabinet meeting in September 2012 to stall passage of the bill and got it referred to a group of ministers. An angry Ramesh then worked through the party leadership to have his way.
Moily on Friday backed the land law and lashed out at BJP's push to dilute pro-farmer provisions. But he is training his guns on Ramesh, accusing him of overzealousness as RD minister.
The land law also resulted in a skirmish between P Chidambaram and Ramesh, with the former finance minister citing some reservations over the land law and the latter accusing him of volte face.
Coincidentally, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday regretted that as opposition leader, he did not follow the bill closely on Ramesh's assurances.
Now, BJP is citing UPA's inter-ministerial bargaining as an example of Congress brass having pushed the law without concern for growth. The argument is also boosted by the demands from Congress chief ministers to the BJP government that some provisions be removed or relaxed. The demand was made in a meeting on June 27, 2014.
Haryana had then demanded that the "consent clause" for PPP projects be removed or reduced from 70% to 50%. Kerala too made a demand for softening the consent provision.
Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Manipur demanded that social impact assessment be restricted to large projects. Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana also protested that the definition of "affected family" was too broad. Assam and Maharashtra questioned the retrospective clause for compensation.
Kerala said states be allowed to frame state-specific Acts for land acquisition while Manipur sought continuation of the 1894 Act.
Then Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan had written to Ramesh in August 2011 demanding that compensation be lowered from four times to 2.2 times, as the state later did.
While the Centre on Thursday cited a letter from former commerce minister Anand Sharma seeking exemption for industrial corridors as evidence that Congress's land law was a hurdle for growth, the fact is Sharma had asked for exemption also for SEZs, which was not accepted.
It was not just between Sharma and Ramesh. The land law witnessed a bruising battle between economic and infrastructure ministers and Ramesh over striking a balance between growth and farmers' interests.
At one point, when inter-ministerial discussions failed, five ministers — Kamal Nath, C P Joshi, Veerappa Moily, Sharma and Sriprakash Jaiswal — joined hands in a Cabinet meeting in September 2012 to stall passage of the bill and got it referred to a group of ministers. An angry Ramesh then worked through the party leadership to have his way.
Moily on Friday backed the land law and lashed out at BJP's push to dilute pro-farmer provisions. But he is training his guns on Ramesh, accusing him of overzealousness as RD minister.
The land law also resulted in a skirmish between P Chidambaram and Ramesh, with the former finance minister citing some reservations over the land law and the latter accusing him of volte face.
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Coincidentally, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday regretted that as opposition leader, he did not follow the bill closely on Ramesh's assurances.
Now, BJP is citing UPA's inter-ministerial bargaining as an example of Congress brass having pushed the law without concern for growth. The argument is also boosted by the demands from Congress chief ministers to the BJP government that some provisions be removed or relaxed. The demand was made in a meeting on June 27, 2014.
Haryana had then demanded that the "consent clause" for PPP projects be removed or reduced from 70% to 50%. Kerala too made a demand for softening the consent provision.
Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Manipur demanded that social impact assessment be restricted to large projects. Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana also protested that the definition of "affected family" was too broad. Assam and Maharashtra questioned the retrospective clause for compensation.
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Kerala said states be allowed to frame state-specific Acts for land acquisition while Manipur sought continuation of the 1894 Act.
Then Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan had written to Ramesh in August 2011 demanding that compensation be lowered from four times to 2.2 times, as the state later did.
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