Headlines
Resurgent Rahul, farmer's suicide puts land bill on backburner
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By Sreeparna Chakrabarty and Anjali OjhaNew Delhi, April 26
A resurgent Rahul Gandhi
and the suicide of a farmer at an AAP rally in the capital seem to have
made the NDA government re-think its strategy on the land acquisition
bill and put it on the backburner - at least for now.
Desperately
trying to fight the "anti-farmer" tag, the government, which went into a
huddle soon after a farmer committed suicide at the April 22 rally of
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has decided to go ahead with the
land bill only when the finance bills and other scheduled business of
parliament are through.
It is also worried about the impact
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, who is just back after a 56-day
self-imposed exile, is having. Rahul has made powerful speeches against
the bill in parliament as well as at a rally.
"The ordinance will be there till August, we are not in a hurry," a senior minister confided to IANS.
An
ordinance has a life of six months or till the next parliament session.
So the land acquisition ordinance, which was re-promulgated in April,
would need to have been passed by the monsoon session before it lapses.
Though the minister claimed the government is confident of getting the land bill through parliament, he did not say how.
He, however, ruled out a joint sitting for getting the bill passed.
Top
sources told IANS the government has decided to go slow on the bill and
the suicide by Rajasthan farmer Gajendra Singh has made the situation
more sensitive.
Mallikarjun Kharge, the leader of the Congress in
the Lok Sabha, told IANS: "As of now we have not been told anything
about the land bill".
The contentious bill, which is meant to
replace an ordinance amending the 2013 land acquisition act, was passed
by the Lok Sabha after nine amendments amid a walkout by the Congress
and other opposition parties.
The NDA which is in a minority in the upper house failed to muster support for the bill.
A
majority of opposition parties, including the Congress, the Samajwadi
Party and the Left parties, have made it clear that the bill should go
to a select committee.
Kharge said: "Our stand remains the same. We want the 2013 UPA bill back".
The
Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition,
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2015, seeks to replace an ordinance
re-promulgated in April which had amended certain provisions of the
2013 act passed during the UPA rule.
The key points, which were removed from the earlier law, related to the consent clause and the social impact assessment study.
The
consent clause provided for 70-80 percent of those dependent on the
land to agree to its acquisition. The social impact assessment clause
entailed carrying out a study to examine the environmental impact and
ensure rehabilitation of displaced people.
The government agreed
to nine amendments to the bill to get it passed in the Lok Sabha. These
included removing social infrastructure as an exempted category and
ensuring that the bare minimum of land required for a project is
acquired.
Compulsory employment for at least one member of the
affected family of a farm labourer has also been added as well as a
clause that the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation Authority should hold
hearings in the district where the acquisition takes place.
When
the ordinance was re-promulgated by President Pranab Mukherjee, the nine
amendments made when it was passed in the Lok Sabha were included.
The
government has meanwhile told its ministers to fan across the country
and convince farmers that the land acquisition ordinance is not
anti-farmer.
A senior cabinet minister in the thick of things
told IANS: "We are all going to our constituencies and home states and
meeting farmers."
"Not only the land bill, we are also talking
about farmers' problems in general and asking them for suggestions on
how to improve agriculture and address farm distress in the country," he
said.
(Sreeparna Chakrabarty can be contacted at [email protected] and Anjali Ojha can be contacted at [email protected])