Jairam tables new land Bill,credits it to Rahul’s padyatra

In a major concession,the LARR law will not have “primacy” over 16 other Central laws for land acquisitions as envisaged by Ramesh in his initial draft. Sections 97 and 98 make it clear that LARR “shall be in addition” to and “shall not apply” to the existing Central laws governing land acquisition for specific sectors.

This means that land acquisition under the Atomic Energy Act,1962; the Land Acquisition (Mines) Act,1885; the Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of Uses in Land) Act,1962; the Special Economic Zones Act,2005; the Coal Bearing Areas Acquisition and Development Act,1957; and the Electricity Act,2003 among several others will be exempt from the LARR law.

“Bringing all other Central laws regarding acquisition would have made it difficult to get clearance from the Cabinet,” Ramesh said on Wednesday,in contrast to his initial assertion that the LARR Act will have an “overriding effect” clause in the initial draft made public on July 29.

Ramesh,however,chose to ignore the bipartisan support reflected in thumping of desks across party lines at the time of introduction of the Bill and invoked the “recent protests” and “Rahul Gandhi’s padyatra” against land acquisition in Uttar Pradesh as the motivation of this fresh legislation and credited Rahul for all the major features that differentiates the current Bill from the one piloted during UPA-I.

“I am a political animal. One important motivation of this Bill is the recent protests against land acquisition in Uttar Pradesh. It is in the political context of Rahul Gandhi’s padyatra (in UP) this Bill has been brought. It is a political response to a political problem,” Ramesh asserted addressing a press conference after introducing the Bill in the Lok Sabha.