Photo: OneIndia
The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) scrutinising the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2015, has sought for an extension of about a week for presenting its report to Parliament.
This was announced by its chairman S.S. Ahluwalia at the ninth meeting of the panel on Tuesday, which saw RSS outfit Swadeshi Jagran Manch express strong reservations to the amendments proposed by the government to the 2013 Land Act. In a major embarrassment to the National Democratic Alliance government, the SJM observed that the government showed “undue hurry’’ in replacing the 2013 Land Act with LARR (Amendment) Ordinance 2014 and described some of the official amendments as “detestable’’ and “unacceptable’’.
Appearing before the Committee, SJM co-convenor Ashwini Mahajan emphasised that the consent and social impact assessment clauses could not be diluted and made it clear that the “problems in non-acquisition of land were not coming in the way of industrialisation.” He sought for a land use policy that sets a judicious ceiling on land use for agriculture, forests and industry and said farmland should not be acquired for any other purpose in the interest of food security for the country. Acquisition of multi-crop land should be avoided.
Speaking to the media, a panel member stated of the 50-odd organisations and individuals that have reportedly appeared before the 30-member committee in its nine sittings, at least 90 per cent have expressed opposition to the Bill.
Asserting that social impact assessment of big projects on society, environment and economy was a well-established international practice, the SJM said violation of the norm as well as not seeking consent was “against natural justice’’ for those affected by proposed land acquisition. Consent of farmers should be obtained, government should not acquire for private entities and land use change must not be allowed.
The All-India Kisan Sabha also opposed the Bill. Scientific and agriculture institutions including the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Pusa, and National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Nagpur, which also appeared before the panel, warned the government against using the productive soil for industrial purposes which may cause harm and threats to the food security.
Only, representatives of the industry body, FICCI, backed the major amendments, including doing away with clauses for consent and social impact assessment. It wanted no burden of rehabilitation of displaced people to fall on private purchasers of land.
Tags: BJP land acquisition bill Narendra Modi RSS
