The Government plans to introduce the new land acquisition Bill in Parliament in the next session, the Home Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, said here on Thursday.
“We must have a new land acquisition Act. There is consensus around the land acquisition law that is being drafted. It is the Government's intention to introduce the law in the next session of Parliament. We would have passed it in the Budget session, except it was truncated,” Mr Chidambaram added.
The new law will not only provide better compensation but also look into rehabilitation and related issues. The Minister did not rule out the option of enacting an Ordinance on this issue. Mr Chidambaram was speaking at the first press conference of the newly-constituted Group of Ministers (GoM) to look at issues raised by the media.
Land acquisition has been a controversial issue, which has held up several projects, including Posco's in Orissa. It also led to Tata Motors shifting the plant for producing the Nano car from West Bengal to Gujarat.
Currently, farmers are agitating on the outskirts of Delhi over the acquisition of land by the Uttar Pradesh Government for the Gautam Budh Express Highway.
Bhopal gas TRAGEDY case
The Home Minister also announced that the Government would request the CBI to move the Sessions Court in Bhopal for an early hearing of its revision application to try the accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy for graver charges under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had rejected a curative petition filed by the CBI against an earlier apex court judgment that diluted charges against the accused.
The Minister admitted that it would be “naive or wrong” to think that the public outcry did not play a part in the Government changing it stance and filling a curative petition in the apex court.