Victory for Cong: In a major climb down, NDA withdraws changes to UPA's land bill

Soon after Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspended 25 Congress MPs’ for causing grave disorder in Parliament, the NDA government upped its game by accepting all recommendations by the Congress on the land bill. Suggestions from other opposition parties have also been accepted. The government has reportedly also agreed to withdraw all changes that it wanted to incorporate in the existing bill. Sources said all the 11 BJP members in the Joint Committee of Parliament on land bill on Monday moved amendments seeking to bring back social impact assessment and consent clause. [caption id=“attachment_2129547” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The government has reinstated the consent clause, which was removed as part of the amendment, and also the social impact assessment, according to media reports citing Congress sources. As per the original bill passed by the UPA, 70 percent of the farmers were to give consent to give away the land in case of public-private partnership projects and 80 percent in case of private projects. Industry viewed this as a key impediment and the NDA had remove this clause in the amendment. The other provision that has been reinstated has been the mandatory social impact assessment prior to the land acquisition. The industry had objections to this too as they felt this has resulted in inordinate delays in execution of projects. According to a news report on 28 July, Congress, CPM and JD-U had sought a “total withdrawal” of proposed changes by the NDA government in the 2013 Land Act and inclusion of some additional measures to further strengthen the law in favour of farmers. The Congress had pitched for a uniform four-time compensation in rural and urban areas from the existing market value of land. With BJP retracting from its previous position, there is likelihood that the panel headed by BJP MP S S Ahluwalia will come out with a consenus report by August 7. “It’s as good as our own Act of 2013,” a Congress member of the committee told PTI after the meeting, expressing total agreement with the amendments moved by the ruling BJP. Trinamool Congress members Derek ‘O Brien and Kalyan Banerjee walked out of the meeting stating that the amendments were circulated this morning and they had little time to study. Six of the amendments were discussed on Monday on which there was a consensus. Out of the total 15 amendments in the NDA bill, nine were substantial in nature that have been opposed by Congress and a number of Opposition parties. Out of these nine six including the provisions dealing with consent clause, social impact assessment, replacing the term private company with private entity were discussed today and a consensus has emerged on them, Congress members claimed. In its list of amendments besides other things, the CPM demanded that land losers should also be given 20 percent of the profit accrued by industries set up on their land annually besides the existing compensation. The strategy of the Congress was to somehow get a majority of members in the panel to oppose the main amendments being brought by the government in the UPA’s Land Act. The move on the land bill could have a positive impact as both Houses of Parliament are facing continuous logjam over the last eight days with the largest Opposition party not allowing any legislative business with its disruptive tactics. The Congress MPs were carrying placards and shouting slogans in the Well while demanding resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over the Lalit Modi row and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over Vyapam scam. The Monsoon Session which has seen no business so far has a heap of important bills to take up including the Goods and Services Tax Bill, Land Bill, Real Estate Regulator Bill, Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, Whistle Blowers Protection (Amendment) Bill, Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill among others. With PTI inputs