CII wants TMC to support Land Bill

Industry chamber CII today said it wants the Trinamool Congress to support the Land acquisition Bill in Parliament and scrap Land Ceiling Act in West Bengal.
"Land Bill should be passed. Definitely it should be supported," CII president Sumit Mazumder said.
The Lok Sabha had cleared the Land Bill but it is yet to be passed in the Rajya Sabha and the Narendra Modi government is seeking support from all parties in this regard.
Elaborating, Mazumder said the Modi government Land Bill is not anti-farmer.
"When farmers are being offered four times the market price and the land will be used for national interest and not for a private factory, where is the problem. If land is needed for, say, a highway it is good for the country," he said.

Last week the government was forced to refer the contentious land acquisition bill to a Joint Parliamentary committee.

The government, which had promulgated Land Ordinance twice since December to make it easier to acquire land for infrastructure and rural projects as well as industrial corridors, agreed to a 30-member panel examining the amendments after allies Shiv Sena and Akali Dal joined opposition in Lok Sabha to oppose it.
The Committee is expected to give its report on the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 on the first day of the next session.

On Land Ceiling Act in the state, the CII president supported scrapping of the act.
He personally supported Banerjee's call for national iron-ore policy for growth of iron-ore and steel projects in the state.
Mazumder hoped GST will be implemented as there had been lot of progress on it. The government had to refer the Constitutional Amendment Bill to roll out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to the Select Committee for scrutiny.
The Centre plans to roll out the new indirect tax regime by April 2016.
CII (East) chairman A K Verma said CII had not formally discussed the land and SEZ issue with Banerjee.

CII is discussing signing of a MoU with Bengal on ease of doing business with a Singapore university, he added.