Land Acquisition Bill in the next session : PC

A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took centre-stage putting his party’s weight behind protesters over land acquisition in western Uttar Pradesh, the government said it would introduce a new land acquisition bill having provisions for better compensation and rehabilitation measures in the next session of Parliament. “We must have a new land acquisition law. Government has drafted a new act that has provisions for better compensation, rehabilitation and other measures. But it was not possible to build a consensus on the law. Consensus building took some time. Now we are at a point when there is a fair degree of certainty that there is a consensus on the law with some amendments,” said the Union home minister P Chidambaram. Addressing a press conference, the first after government formed a Group of Ministers to brief media to counter the bad press government may face on occasions, Chidambaram said it was the government’s intention to introduce a bill in the next session of Parliament. The home minister did not rule out the possibility of bringing an ordinance in this regard, if needed.