Government confident of consensus on land bill?

New Delhi: The government is confident that a consensus will be evolved on the contentious land acquisition bill in the crucial all-party meeting to be held on 18 April. Sources in the government said formal and informal consultations with the Opposition parties on the bill have been “fruitful”. They expressed confidence that a consensus would be evolved in the all-party meeting. Almost all parties have submitted their suggestions regarding the bill. It was decided in the all-party meeting of April 9 that the parties should submit their suggestions to the Rural Development Ministry by April 15 and the Ministry would get back to them before the consultations on April 18. Meanwhile, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh continued his efforts to reach out to Opposition parties as he met Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav and Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav separately seeking their support. Both the leaders are said to have acknowledged their parties’ support to the government’s move to pass the bill in the budget session of Parliament when it resumes after a four-week recess on Monday. Keen on forging consensus on the bill when the parties meet again on April 18, Ramesh had held separate discussions with Leaders of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley and CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury last week. He has also spoken to senior CPI leader and Rajya Sabha MP D Raja to iron out differences on the bill. At the April 9 meeting of parties, Swaraj had submitted BJP’s 12 points of concern. One was over the government deleting the term SEZ and replacing it with ‘manufacturing zones’ in the bill. BJP had also suggested that instead of acquisition, the land could be leased to the developer as it was a “better proposition” because the land will remain with the farmer and would provide him with regular annual income. Basudeb Acharya, who represented CPI-M in the all-party meeting, had opposed certain provisions in the bill and asked the government to send the bill back to the standing committee on Rural Development and bring it into Parliament during monsoon session. PTI