Anand Sharma opposes barring industry from purview of 'public purpose'

The Commerce Minister, Mr Anand Sharma has opposed the exclusion of industry from the purview of ‘public purpose’ under the Land Acquisition Bill.

“The industry captains have raised concerns on this and we will place them firmly before the Cabinet,” Mr Sharma told reporters on Friday.

A Parliamentary Panel report on land acquisition has recommended that Government would acquire land only for public purpose and not public-private partnership projects. The report, tabled in Lok Sabha on Thursday, said that land can be acquired by the government only for infrastructure and social projects.

Stating that the recommendations were not acceptable, Mr Sharma said “it will hurt the industry and dampen the investor sentiment”. He said that a facilitating environment should be created to promote the industry especially “when we are talking of increasing the share of manufacturing in GDP from the present 16 per cent to 25 per cent in a decade is creating 100 million jobs."

India is expecting an investment of $1 trillion in manufacturing and infrastructure over the next five years, the Minister said. “You cannot take a view which is regressive and which prevents the growth of the industry,” Mr Sharma said adding that job creation, infrastructure development and manufacturing are part of public purpose.

CII President, Mr Adi Godrej said Parliamentary panel recommendations would adversely affect the industry, especially the manufacturing sector. The Land Acquisition & Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 had rightly included industry in the definition of "Public Purpose" as industry equally contributes in creating wealth and employment for the country.

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