Top BJP leaders meet PM over land issue

With the government mulling various options on the land bill, the BJP top brass today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is reported to have discussed the Land Acquisition Ordinance that expires on April 5.
According to sources, BJP President Amit Shah and Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari met the Prime Minister at his Race Course Road residence late this evening and are learnt to have discussed ways and means of finding a solution to the land issue.
The meeting lasted for over two hours.
The sources say that the government is trying to find a legal way out of the situation and may not want to re-promulgate the controversial land ordinance and will thus allow it to lapse on April 5 in the wake of stiff opposition by various political parties and activists.

The party is, however, keen to dispel wrong notions and propaganda against the land bill and will be addressing the concerns of farmers in this regards.
The sources said the BJP is fully backing the government on the move and has already addressed all concerns raised by the Sangh Parivar.

The government had promulgated the ordinance on land acquisition on December 31 last year. A bill to replace the ordinance was brought to Parliament in Budget Session which started on February 23.
While the bill, providing for amending the Act of 2013, was cleared by the Lok Sabha earlier this month, it got stuck in Rajya Sabha with the entire opposition uniting against it in the House where the ruling NDA is in a minority. Since then the Budget Session has gone into recess till April 20.

The sources indicated that the government was not keen to take the unusual step of proroguing the Budget Session during the recess as it would hardly serve any purpose and might lead to charges of arrogance on the ruling dispensation.
There is also a thinking in the government that the ordinance can be re-promulgated after the Budget Session comes to an end on May 8.