Shiv Sena joins Opposition meeting on land bill

Sources in the Congress said that it had sought restoration of the consent of 80 per cent of landowners to be obtained for private projects and that of 70 per cent under public-private partnership.

The present bill exempts five categories from this provision — defence, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors and infrastructure projects, including 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 impact when land is acquired. This provision has been done away with.

The BJD and the Trinamool have already written to the panel about their amendments seeking total withdrawal of the NDA’s bill.

The strategy of the Congress is to somehow get a majority of members in the panel to oppose the main amendments being brought by the government in the UPA’s land law.

In the meeting at Pawar’s residence, the Congress, the Trinamool and the CPI(M) said that they are for “total withdrawal” of the NDA’s land bill.

The Sena is not seeking total withdrawal of the NDA bill but has its reservations against the amendments, which removed provisions of consent clause and social impact survey from the bill that existed in the 2013 law.

Tuesday’s meeting at Mr. Pawar’s residence was aimed at exploring the possibility to work out a joint amendment, the sources said.

After clause-by-clause consideration of the bill by the committee, the government is likely to move a draft bill before the panel on July 30. The members will discuss the draft and file their dissent notes, if any, by August 5.

While the Trinamool wants a total withdrawal of the amendments brought by the government, the BJD wants land losers as stakeholders when it is acquired for profitable ventures.

The party wants that landowners should be given a share in profit if the land is acquired for setting up industry and other commercial ventures, sources said.

In the amendments, the BJD has pitched for bringing back the consent and social impact assessment provisions into the bill.

The Congress had in the past also written to the panel that the compensation in the law which is four times the market value in urban areas and between two to four times in rural areas should be made uniform four times in all areas, a demand which the government may find difficult to accept.However, in an interview with CNBC-TV18, Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said he was not aware of any such meeting taking place."I have no idea about such meeting. You can get it cleared from Adsul [if he attended]," he said, but he added that the party's stand on the issue was clear."Compelling the farmer to surrender his land without taking his consent is something we won't agree to," he said.He however made it clear that unlike other parties, the Shiv Sena was not in favour of total withdrawal of the bill and said it had good clauses, such as the one on compensation.