Congress, Trinamool to cut a deal on land acquisition Bill

With Congress president Sonia Gandhi ratcheting up the momentum on the contentious Land Acquisition (amendment) Bill, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is now trying to find a common ground to resolve the impasse.

While the Trinamool Congress – the largest ally of the Congress party in the second UPA – still against government role in land acquisition (the proposed bill gives 30 per cent power to the state), it will focus on a better rehabilitation and resettlement policy in the proposed R&R bill for the displaced to break the logjam.

The party is preparing a note (see chart) where it would emphasise on the intervention of Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council (NAC) to redraft the R&R Bill.

A top leader of the Trinamool Congress told Business Standard it wants Gandhi’s panel to review the provisions pertaining to the hill people. “The proposed R&R bill speaks about population of over 400 people in hilly areas. The ground reality is in most areas, there are very small villages in the hills,” the Trinamool leader said.

The party would seek a special package for the coastal area population. Their logic: unlike the hill, tribal or forest areas, no comprehensive study on the coastal population has been done so far. Before the government moves to redraw the land acquisition law, it needs to take a fresh approach about the coastal people.

It is also against any “straitjacket formula” for the R&R policy and wants the government to consider local complexities in different parts of India and address the rehabilitation issue accordingly.

“We are hopeful to resolve the pending issues before the next session of Parliament. There is not much difference between our leader Mamata Banerjee and the Congress on this issue. Everything will be amicably settled,” Minister of State for Rural Development and Trinamool Congress MP Shishir Adhikary told Business Standard.

While Adhikary is mum on the party’s wishlist, sources in the Trinamool camp indicate it primarily wants transparency in all land deals involving private players, apart from banning government role in land acquisition. Banerjee’s party has already held one round of discussion with top Congress leaders and it will submit a detailed note soon. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to sit with Mamata Banerjee to iron out the differences so that the government can table the bill during the winter session.