According to Congress members, the PM said this during his Mann Ki Baat programme on radio.
The Congress is miffed that the government was trying to bypass a central law passed by the previous UPA government by asking the states to handle their own land acquisition issues.
Earlier, the Congress had led nationwide protests against the government's controversial land ordinance which had totally changed the provisions of the law passed by the UPA.
The Modi government had later dropped the issue as it could not get the ordinance through parliament.