Arun Jaitley defends land Bill move

This means that the Land Act as earlier enacted by the previous UPA government will stay. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi is understood to be in favour of issuing such an order, but the Law Ministry said only an ordinance can be brought to bring the 13 acts under the ambit of the land law. Land ordinance is one of those contentious bills that lapses on 31st August 2015.

By making the announcement of a retreat on the controversial land bill through his “Mann ki Baat” platform, Modi has sought to give the impression that he is more democratic than his detractors.

“The states are thus fully empowered to amend the 2013 land law”, Jaitley has said in the post, titled “The Land Ordinance – The Obvious Answers”.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said that cost of money has to come down if India has to achieve 8-10 percent growth.

“The prime consideration behind our bringing ordinance was to make sure the compensation and aid and rehabilitation provisions of the 2013 land Act are additionally relevant to farmers, whose land is acquired underneath the 13 different central Acts and that their curiosity have to be protected”.

The government has failed to pass the land acquisition bill in Parliament following sustained and concerted campaign against the legislation from the opposition parties as also some NDA allies.

“That flexibility is made available to the states even now under the decision taken in chief minister’s meeting”, he said.

In a radio address on Sunday, Mr. Modi blamed his political opponents for “spreading misinformation” about the land- law changes.

“If there is some recommendation with consensus by the Joint Committee of Parliament, something new can happen”.

Jaitley defended the amendments proposed to the 2013 Act thus: “Section 105 of the 2013 Act exempted 13 legislations listed in Schedule IV of the Act from the applicability of the provisions of the Act”. The significance though of the Prime Minister’s remarks lies in the manner in which the flaws in the 2013 Land Acquisition Law have been fixed through an Executive Order. The provisions of the Act would also prevent the development of the rural areas through rural infrastructure and further prevent job opportunities created in those areas by industrialisation. “They (states) themselves said that with the various clearances needed under the Act, land acquisition would take nearly 60 months and this was too long”, he said at a press conference. They could, for instance, choose to tone down the consent clause, or do away with social impact assessment requirements depending on what is palatable to their respective assemblies. Townships can not be completed within five years.