New Delhi: Before giving his assent to the land acquisition ordinance, President Pranab Mukherjee is learnt to have sought a “clarification” from ministers in the Modi government to explain to him “the urgency” in bringing the executive order.
The President signed the ordinance on land acquisition on Wednesday night after the ministers met him and replied to his queries. Sources privy to the development revealed that he asked finance minister Arun Jaitley, an eminent lawyer himself, law minister Sadananda Gowda and road transport minister Nitin Gadkari to “explain the government’s urgency to bring in the ordinance before clearing it”.
According to sources, the ordinance has been brought to facilitate easing of land acquisition to give a fresh push to stalled projects which run into hundreds of billions of dollars.
With the promulgation of the ordinance, the R&R (rehabilitation and resettlement) and compensation provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 will be applicable for the 13 existing Central laws including the Coal Bearing Areas Acquisition and Development Act, 1957.
