The political managers of the union government are facing stiff resistance from the opposition parties on crucial financial legislations in banking and insurance sectors but Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Bill is likely to get support of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the main opposition party believes that United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has accepted most of the recommendations of the standing committee.
Although BJP leaders remain non-committal on the issue of extending support, they are pleased that major recommendations of the parliamentary committee headed by Sumitra Mahajan have been incorporated by the government. BJP leaders have elaborated that they would first discuss the crucial Bill with members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and other political parties before making a final decision.
“The government has incorporated all the important recommendations given by the parliamentary committee, including involvement of panchayats and taking the views of majority of people who will be losing their land. The standing committee had suggested consent of 80% people and government too is talking about majority of the people,” said a senior BJP leader, adding that the Bill has incorporated suggestions about rights of the tribals in the Bill.
The union cabinet cleared the LARR Bill on Thursday and has decided that consent of at least 70% of the people will be needed for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects while for private projects consent will be needed of 80% people. The controversial Bill which was sent to Group of Ministers (GoM) had suggested consent to 2/3rd people.
However, BJP leaders indicated that they were not pleased with the definition of “public purpose” in the Bill but they were ready to discuss the issue on the floor of the house when it comes for discussion in the Parliament.
BJP leaders are also pleased that the union government had taken a decision to make a policy to acquire land for all agricultural land in the LARR Bill and the policy decision was not limited to only multi-crop land as it was suggested in the Land Acquisition Bill.
“The parliamentary committee had recommended that policy should also included single crop land and not just multi-crop land because single crop land is also used to grow a certain kind of crops which are needed to meet the demands of the people,” the BJP leader added.