Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the benefits of changes to the Land Bill will also accrue to the rural poor in terms of irrigation, housing, electrification, as well as better physical and social infrastructure. He regretted that the Congress was “not even ready to sit and discuss" the issue of the land Bill.
Once approved by President Pranab Mukherjee, the ordinance would be promulgated for the third time and will be the thirteenth executive order of the Narendra Modi government since it came to power in May last year. The Bill is before the joint committee (of Parliament) and the old ordinance will lapse on June 3, communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. The government also came out with a statement about the ordinance.
Mr Prasad said that the re-promulgation was necessary as the amendments to the 2013 Act include 13 Central Acts for ensuring compensation to farmers whose land is acquired
for certain types of projects. "To ensure that there is no problem in compensation to farmers, we have approved the recommendation for re-promulgation... It shows our commitment to the farmers," he said. The minister said if the ordinance is not brought again, then, legally speaking, there will be no framework for the states to compensate farmers. He also said that the re-promulgation was required "just to obviate the apprehension of any ambiguity or uncertainty".
A bill based on the earlier ordinance is pending before a parliamentary panel and Mr Prasad clarified that the fresh ordinance will be a copy of that and has no new provisions or changes. While the 2013 law required that the consent of 80 per cent of land owners be obtained for private projects and of 70 per cent for PPP projects, the present bill exempts five categories from this provision of the act - defence, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors and infrastructure projects, including public-private partnership (PPP) projects, where the government owns the land.
Responding to a question on whether the government could consider bringing the consent clause again, Mr Prasad merely said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already declared he is open to any constructive suggestions on the bill. Mr Prasad also recalled that Mr Modi had earlier in his Mann Ki Baat radio programme made it clear that land will not be acquired for any corporates without the consent of farmers.
He said the government has made it clear that first barren land will be used and cultivable land will be acquired only if required. The 2013 Act also required that a social impact assessment be conducted to identify affected families and calculate the social impact of land acquisition. According to news agency reports, that provision has been done away with.
