Land Bill panel got 7th extension
The Joint
Committee on the contentious Land Bill or the Right to Fair Compensation and
Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment)
Bill, 2015 got a seventh extension and a new chairman, keeping the Bill alive,
nearly a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi withdrew the ordinance and
allowed the States to enact their own laws on land acquisition.
- BJP Lok Sabha member Ganesh Singh has been appointed the new chairperson of the committee after his predecessor S.S. Ahluwalia was made Minister early this month. Mr. Singh, who had been a member of this panel, moved a resolution in the Lok Sabha asking for an extension for the committee till the end of the winter session.
- Since the land acquisition Bill is pending in Parliament, the Union government had promulgated an ordinance on four occasions.
- But giving up the ordinance route, the government had on August 28 last issued a ‘statutory order’ to include 13 Central Acts like National Highway and Railways Acts to extend benefits to those whose land is acquired under the land law.
- The Land Acquisition Act, 2013 had exempted 13 Acts from its purview with the condition that they would be brought within its ambit in one year.
The
NDA’s ordinance in December 2014 had brought these 13 Acts under the new land
Bill. At the same time, it also made significant changes in the Land
Acquisition Act 2013, including removal of consent clause for acquiring land
for five areas — industrial corridors, PPP projects, rural infrastructure,
affordable housing and defence.
