NEW DELHI, June 16:
Members from opposition parties today expressed reservations over the representative of a private firm being allowed to make a submission before the Joint Committee of Parliament that is going into the contentious land acquisition Bill.
As it met for the fifth day to hear the views of stakeholders, some of the opposition party members strongly objected to the panel calling “private individuals with their own agenda” for the meeting, sources said.
One of the members questioned why they should listen to views of people with “vested interests”, saying that the particular company had interest in building construction activities, the sources added.
Members said they have no objection to individuals appearing before the parliamentary panel who represent credible organisations, but private individuals cannot be allowed to push their “agenda” before it.
The Joint Committee on the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015, headed by SS Ahluwalia today called representatives from organisations like Foundation for Democratic Reforms, Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan, Sree Samayaa, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, PRS Legislative Research and an individual Dhanush Kumar.
Two young law students Aditya Manubarwala and Shardool Kulkarni also submitted their views before the panel.
While the first two submissions went on normally, members objected when the Managing Director of Sree Samayaa, a private limited company from Mumbai, began expressing his views in favour of the contentious Bill.
The MD of Sree Samayaa was cut short by with Congress, Trinamool Congress, Left and BJD members being the ones who opposed him.
The opposition members also wanted the government to spell out its stand on the land Bill issue since the matter has now been referred to a parliamentary panel. They asked Ahluwalia to find out what the Government’s view is on the matter now.
The panel had yesterday called well-known social activist Medha Patkar and others from the National Alliance for People’s Movements (NAPM), Oxfam India, Centre for Policy Research, Bharti Kisan Union of Punjab, National Alliance of Farmers Movement (NAFM), a national-level farmers’ coordination committee, Bhartiya Kisan Union, Haryana and Society for Justice and Punjab, who had opposed the changes proposed in the 2013 land law of UPA.
They had made a strong plea for the bringing back of the Social Impact Assessment and consent clause in the land Bill.
While the 2013 law required the consent of 80 per cent of land-owners to be obtained for private projects and that of 70 per cent for PPP ones, the present Bill exempts five categories from this provision — defence, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors and infrastructure projects, including public-private partnership (PPP) projects where the Government owns the land.
The 2013 Act also required that a social impact assessment be conducted to identify affected families and calculate the social impact when land is acquired. This provision has been done away with.
In a bid to ensure that the committee is able to table its report on the first day of the Monsoon session itself, it will meet twice every week. The Monsoon session usually begins mid-July.
The sources added that once the report is returned by the joint panel, the Upper House will have to either accept the same or reject it and hence take a decision on passing the Bill or rejecting it.
In case it rejects the Bill after the committee’s report, that will pave the way for a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament, a route which may be preferable to the Government.
The Government, which faces a number crunch in Rajya Sabha, has promulgated the land Ordinance three times so far. (PTI)
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