20.12.12

Land Acquisition Bill pushed back


The much-awaited bill on land acquisition has been pushed back to the Budget session.
Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh failed to move the amendments to the land bill after protests from BJP leader Rajnath Singh, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Trinamool Congress and the Left front.
Ramesh’s move to initiate the process in Lok Sabha late on Tuesday evening met with uproar, prompting parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath to say that the government will make the land bill its first agenda in the Budget session.
Another delay in clinching the important agenda is bound to raise anxiety in Congress camp which is desperately looking to deliver success on ‘aam admi’ front to regain governance initiative after months of drift.
Ramesh has made 154 amendments to the bill that was tabled earlier in the lower House and was vetted by the standing committee. The bill was approved by the Cabinet last week to meet the deadline of the winter session.
While the government was reconciled to the bill not being passed, it felt putting it on Parliament’s agenda would help it score points over rivals that are opposing it.
BJP leader Rajnath Singh resented that government was bringing the important bill at the fag end of the session. “We are ready to pass the bill. It’s important. But we want a detailed discussion on it. Let the government extend the session by a day,” he said. Mulayam too sought time for discussion while the Left and Trinamool opposed the bill.

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