Govt to push for LS nod to land acquisition Bill today

In the backdrop of protests against land acquisitions and SEZs that have stalled various projects,the UPA Government has decided to get the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill....

In the backdrop of protests against land acquisitions and SEZs that have stalled various projects,the UPA Government has decided to get the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill,2007,and the Bill to amend the Land Acquisition Act cleared by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Sources said a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday cleared amendments to the Land Acquisition Act and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill,2007. In fact,sources said,Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh was on the phone almost the entire day to coordinate with the other arms of the Government to get the Bill introduced in Parliament for approval.

Ideally the issue should have gone to the Cabinet for clearance again before its introduction in Parliament,but with only two days left for the 14th Lok Sabha,the Government decided to rush through the procedure.

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Sources confirmed that the GoM made no changes in both the Bills. The Bills could not get through the Cabinet during the last session of Parliament in December with the Cabinet referring it to the GoM. Subsequently,the Government revived the GoM for a fresh look into the various aspects of the amendments.

Besides Pawar,the GoM included Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy,Home Minister P Chidambaram,Commerce Minister Kamal Nath,Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh,Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The same GoM had made its recommendations to the Government,but the Bills were stuck in the Cabinet after several recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Land Acquisition were rejected by the Rural Development Ministry.

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