Govt to bring investment-friendly changes in land act

With the assembly elections over in Haryana and Maharashtra, Government has renewed its efforts to bring investment-friendly changes in the Land Acquisition Act.
Government sources said here today that Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari would meet Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a day or two to find a way to evolve "consensus" among leaders of leading political parties to bring changes in the Act to make it more investor-friendly.
An all party meeting is expected to be convened to evolve the consensus and its date is likely to be fixed in the meeting between two ministers, a source close to the Rural Development Minister said.

Government's effort is to bring amendment to the Act in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament, he said.
The move from the government came after complaints from various quarters including industry and state governments that projects worth thousands of crores were stalled due to strong farmer-friendly provisions in the law enacted during the previous UPA government.
"Government was waiting for the elections to get over in Maharashtra and Haryana," the source said and acknowledged that government remained silent on the land acquisition problems during the elections anticipating that parties would use it for scoring points.

Gadkari had earlier said that consensus was not happening due to the "contradictory views" within political parties which were wanting changes in the legislation.

The Minister has also hit out at the "microscopic minority" of Opposition leaders for stalling the government's efforts to build consensus on bringing changes in the key farmer-friendly Act.
He had made it clear that the priority of the NDA was welfare of poor and there was "no question of reducing compensation package for farmers whose land is acquired for projects".
In a note sent to the PMO recently, the Rural Development Ministry, which held a meeting of the state Revenue Ministers, has suggested a number of amendments to the Act that seeks to dilute pro-farmer provisions like mandatory consent of at least 70 per cent locals for acquiring land for PPP projects and 80 per cent for acquiring land for private projects.

The ministry's proposals also include dilution of a key clause of Social Impact Assessment study criticised by states as time consuming for industrialisation process.