Monsoon Session of Parliament may be extended further, indicates Kamal Nath

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday indicated that the Monsoon Session of Parliament may be extended further as key bills remain pending.

"Important legislations are still pending, (and) if necessary, (we) will extend the Monsoon Session of Parliament," Nath told media here.

"Important legislations are to be passed. All political parties must recognize this. I appeal it to everyone to understand the importance of this. They should corporate in passing the bills," he added.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh met top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders at his official 7 RCR residence on Tuesday evening to seek their cooperation in passage of the land acquisition bill and other pending economic bills in Parliament.

According to Television reports, senior BJP leaders L.K. Advani, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj attended the meeting.

While Dr. Singh has also appealed to the BJP to end Parliament stand-off over missing coalgate files, there are crucial bills that are pending in the remaining three days of this session, which was extended till September 6.

The Land Acquisition Bill, which has been renamed as "The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012" is also pending for discussion in the Rajya Sabha.

The Bill is in continuation of the UPA Government's commitment to enacting rights based legislation with the objective of empowering the common man.

The new Bill proposes that farmers and landowners be paid up to four times the market value for land acquired in rural areas, and two times the market value in urban areas.

The other significant aspect of the Bill is that the consent of 80 percent of land owners is needed for acquiring land for private projects and of 70 percent landowners for public-private projects.