Govt to recommend re-promulgation of land bill ordinance
The new ordinance will incorporate the nine amendments that were part of the bill passed in Lok Sabha on 10 March
New Delhi: The union cabinet has decided to recommend re-promulgation of the land acquisition ordinance originally issued on 29 December that is set to lapse on Sunday, according to a Press Trust of India report citing unidentified government officials.
The new ordinance will incorporate the nine amendments that were part of the bill passed in Lok Sabha on 10 March, the news agency reported.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it added. Mint could not immediately verify this independently.
The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 was introduced in the Lok Sabha by rural development minister Chaudhary Birender Singh on 9 March.
It seeks to soften some of the restrictive provisions in the original law shepherded by the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government and passed by Parliament in 2013. That law was seen by many state governments and industry representatives as impeding business and development projects.
But given the opposition to the new bill introduced in the Lok Sabha, the government introduced nine amendments including mandatory employment for at least one member from each family displaced by land acquisition.
Another provides for the government to ensure that the land acquired is the bare minimum required for a project and a third calls on the government to undertake a survey of wastelands.These amendments would be part of the new ordinance that is to be issued, a rural development ministry official had said last week.
The bill cleared the Lok Sabha on 10 March but ran into trouble in the Rajya Sabha where the Narendra Modi led government is in a minority.
Given that the numbers are stacked against it, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Friday decided to prorogue the Rajya Sabha.
The step is aimed at allowing repromulgation of the 29 December ordinance which will give time to the government to take up the bill for passage at a later date.
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