Land ordinance likely to be allowed to lapse on April 5

Government is likely to allow the controversial land ordinance to lapse on April 5 amid stiff opposition by many political parties and activists who have stepped up campaign against the measure.
"It has to lapse on April 5. We will then see what to do next," a senior Cabinet Minister said here today.
Government had promulgated ordinance on land acquisition on December 31 last year. A bill to replace the ordinance was brought to Parliament in Budget session which started on February 23.
While the bill, providing for amending the Act of 2013, cleared Lok Sabha earlier this month, it got stuck in Rajya Sabha with entire opposition uniting in the House where the ruling NDA is in a minority.

Since then the Budget session has gone into recess till April 20 and for re-promulgating the ordinance, Parliament has to be prorogued.
Sources indicated that the government is not keen to take the unusual step of proroguing the Budget session during the recess as it will hardly serve any purpose and may lead to charges of arrogance on the ruling dispensation, which has not completed even one year in office.

The thinking in the government is that the states have not framed rules and as such they cannot acquire land under new ordinance.
Moreover, there is no big ticket investment project pending and hence there is no point in rushing with the repromulgation which will bring the government under unnecessary criticism if they prorogue the session, the sources said.

There is also a thinking in the government that the ordinance can be re-promulgated after the Budget session comes to an end on May 8 as taking the step before the second half of the budget session is unlikely to yield any result since the opposition is unrelenting on scuttling the measure.