Joint panel on land bill gets extension till winter session

The Joint Committee of Parliament examining the contentious land acquisition bill was today granted extension till the Winter session.
Any move of the government to present official amendments to the bill based on the report of the committee, will only be possible in the Winter session, which would be held after the assembly polls in Bihar where BJP is trying hard to replace the incumbent Nitish Kumar government.
The opposition, including Congress, is using the NDA's land bill to paint the Narendra Modi government as "anti-farmer".
A motion allowing the panel to submit its report up to the last day of the first week of Winter session was adopted by the Lower House, amid opposition pandemonium over Lalit Modi controversy.

The decision to seek further extension of its term came after a sharp exchange of words between BJP and Congress members at the panel's meeting yesterday with the latter opposing any change in the retrospective clause of the bill dealing with compensation of land acquired under the earlier 1894 Act, which was replaced by the 2013 law passed by the UPA government.
As members from Congress, TMC and BJD demanded a vote, panel chairman S S Ahluwalia said the committee should submit a unanimous report and gave in to the demands by Congress and TMC members for more time to study certain clauses threadbare.

The committee was earlier given a fresh extension till today to submit its report.