The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed far-reaching amendments to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition law, amidst walk-out by several opposition parties including Congress, Samajwadi Party, Biju Janata Dal and Trinamool Congress.
As many as nine significant including some controversial amendments were made to the law enacted by the UPA Government in 2013.
These changes are widely seen as a U-turn by the Government and those expected to serve the interests of the State and the land banks, rather than the farmers.
The far reaching amendments passed by the lower house today include doing away with consent clause and also the requirement of a social impact assessments before notification of the acquisition.
An amendment that would help remove the bottlenecks faced hitherto faced by industry in acquisition of multi-cropped irrigated land was also passed by Lok Sabha.
In another significant move, the Centre today dropped an earlier proposal that talked about government being required to acquire land for private hospitals and private educational institutions.
The 2013 law stipulates land acquisition for government projects and private companies only after securing 80 percent consent from farmers (70 percent in case of public private partnerships).
With both consent clause and the social impact assessment removed out of the way, many critics claimed that both the “heart and soul” of the land acquisition law was being removed and this step was totally “anti-farmer”.
Some even saw the removal of the consent clause as a step that would lead to back door entry of forcible acquisitions by the Government.
Rejecting criticism that the amendments were “anti-farmer”, Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh later told Business Line that the amendments were being carried out in the country’s interest.
“We are only making a correction to the law that they (UPA) should have done by themselves. All the amendments are in the interest of the farmers and the country”, he said outside Lok Sabha soon after the amendment Bill was passed.
Singh also expressed hope that the ruling dispensation will be able to get this amendment bill passed by the Rajya Sabha too, despite lower strength in the upper house.
Although the mandatory requirement of social impact assessment was being removed, this could be voluntarily adopted by States and those acquiring land.
NUMBERS GAME
The strong majority enjoyed by the BJP in the lower house paid good dividends to the Modi-led Government with most of the amendments moved by the opposition parties getting negatived after division.
Mallikarjun Kharge, who is leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, said most of the suggestions and amendments proposed by his party were not considered by the Government and therefore his party was walking out of the proceedings of the lower house.
The opposition parties put out a spirited effort to stall the passage of the amendments and sought voting for most of the amendments moved by them.