Land acquisition amendment bill introduced in LS

New Delhi: The government on Tuesday introduced the land acquisition amendment bill in the Lok Sabha amid uproar by the opposition.

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill 2015 will replace an ordinance which had been promulgated by the NDA government Dec 30 last year.

The opposition parties, led by the Congress, vociferously opposed the bill on the floor of the house. The Congress staged a walkout.

Introducing the bill, Rural Development Minister Birender Singh said: “I have received the objections of the members but this can be discussed when the bill is taken into consideration.”

Civil society activists, led by Anna Hazare, are protesting on the issue at Jantar Mantar, a short distance away from parliament.

Though Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tried to defend the ordinances saying they would not bypass the parliament, the opposition members were not ready to relent.

Jaitley said the government is within its right to take ordinance route for the Land Acquisition Bill.

However, the minister added that the government was ready to have more discussion with the opposition over the bill.

Congress leader Anand Sharma led the opposition attack in the Rajya Sabha saying the government was expecting the parliament to ubberstamp their ordinances.

“you expect Parliament to rubberstamp your ordinances… you don’t send anything to the Standing Committee,” he said.

The upper house witnessed a face-off between Jaitley and Sharma with the former enlisting the ordinances passed by the previous government and saying the UPA brought in more number of ordinances than they did.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the BJP MPs that amendments to the Land Acquisition Bill was based on suggestions by Congress-ruled states and the government would not be on backfoot on it.