States want own land laws

Meghalaya CM Mukul Sangma on Wednesday took part in the convention of the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) at Nongkrem, on the outskirts of Shillong, which was also attended by AICC general secretary, in-charge Meghalaya, V Narayanasamy.

The BJP here on Wednesday questioned Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s absence from the NITI Aayog meet in New Delhi, accusing the Samajwadi Party (SP) government in the state of “politicising development”.

Talking about PM’s concluding thought, Jaitley said, “If Centre can’t manage to get consensus then States should be given flexibility to develop thr own law regarding land acquisitions”. He recalled that Chief Ministers had always felt that development policies at the Centre should be framed in consultation with the States. The meeting will see discussions on the Land Acquisition Bill and apart from this other important issues like poverty, health and centrally sponsored schemes will also be discussed.

After the Niti Aayog meeting, PM Modi will host a separate meeting with the CMs of Northeastern states.

Congress has been opposing the land bill in its present form.

Congress sources said the party will press for the resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for their help to Lalit Modi, who is facing investigation in cases of alleged tax evasion.

The monsoon session is expected to be a tumultuous one, with contentious land, labour and GST bills on the table, and simmering political scandals threatening to disrupt proceedings.

The Congress will be smirking over the Modi government’s likely defeat or retreat over the Land Bill.

“Land is needed for creating alternative employment for farmers, labourers”.

The Prime Minister said that after formation of his government, several states had raised concerns with regard to the implementation of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. Though the state government is not opposing the Bill as a whole, it will urge the Centre to make some changes in the Bill before tabling it in the Rajya Sabha.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa, who also didn ” t attend the meet, sent a letter of her written speech. They have held that the amendments go against the interests of farmers and take away the rights of tribal communities and gram sabhas.

Samir Jasuja, founder and CEO of real estate analytics firm PropEquity, said sensing that the Parliament route was blocked, the government is trying to resort to backroom negotiations to come around it.