The Congress has questioned the Centre’s decision to bring a notification to bring 13 Acts in the ambit of the Land Acquisition Bill. Maintaining that section 105 of the 2013 Act had envisaged the issuing of such a notification, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the Centre delayed it for more than one year.

He said such a move is keeping the Bihar elections in mind. “This notification, bypassing Parliament, is to make a campaign issue in Bihar,” Ramesh said. “This notification has come after the government was sleeping over it for past seven months and in contravention to the advice rendered by the Law Ministry,” he added.

The formal Rural Development Minister said the notification is not legally tenable. He claimed that as per the third paragraph of the notification the one year period has lapsed. He said it should have been done by a legislation in Parliament or by enacting an Ordinance.

“Congress party welcomes the substance of the notification, which is as per Section 105 of 2013 Act, but opposes the manner in which it has been done. All the political parties are unanimous in the view that Section 105 should have been implemented but the Government failed in its duty that it didn’t act on it for seven months. Now, the present notification is not legally tenable. This makes a mockery of Parliamentary Institutions,” he added. 

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