Land Acquisition Bill to get delayed further

The union government, it seems, will have to wait a little longer for the crucial Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill which was expected to be tabled in Parliament during the upcoming Budget Session.

The standing committee on rural development, which is examining the proposed legislation, is set to inform the Centre that it would miss the March 12 deadline. Also, it would need some more time to complete the deliberations and finalise the report.

In fact, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh had met the MPs’ panel chairperson, Sumitra Mahajan, before the start of the winter session of Parliament. This was done in a bid to facilitate the committee submit its report at the earliest, but it didn’t happen. There were also bids to persuade the senior leaders of the principal opposition Bharatiya Janata Party to expedite the process, but that also did not yield any result.

On her part, Mahajan says the committee had been holding “a lot of” meetings, but it would still miss the original deadline. “We will be able to submit our report by end of March only. Not before that,” she told Business Standard. “It is a very sensitive issue. We would need more time to look into all the aspects of the subject in detail.”

Interestingly, when Ramesh met Mahajan before late last year, the Member of Parliament from Indore had assured the minister that she would try to expedite the work of the committee. Senior BJP leaders are of the view that parliamentary committees must be allowed to complete their work and it cannot be hastened.

Senior members of the standing committee argued that since the work on the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill had started around September end last year, the panel has not got enough time to call all the representatives of state governments, non-government organisations and representatives of different ministries.

“We need more time,” said those who are in the know of development. “For, we have to discuss some issues with legal experts. This is because some of the aspects of the Bill deal with inter-state ties besides relations between the state and the centre.”

Another source noted that the members also had to listen to the representatives of other ministries. “It needs time,” he added.