Deft preparations by the government, including nine amendments to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015, preceded the passage of the contentious legislation in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
While the Opposition was quick to dub the amendments as “clever whitewash” on the Bill, they provided the necessary push to the reluctant allies, particularly the Shiv Sena and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), to blunt their objections.
The allies were called for a meeting by Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu along with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh, who briefed them on the proposed amendments to the Bill.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the SAD attended this meeting along with Anant Geete and Anil Desai of the Shiv Sena, Ram Vilas Paswan and his son Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party, Ashok Gajapati Raju from the Telugu Desam Party, Raju Shetty of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana and Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal.
Although getting the allies on board hardly makes any difference to passage of the Bill in the Lok Sabha, the government will need all the support it can muster when it goes to the Rajya Sabha.
The BJP is in a minority in the Upper House, which is why efforts were being made throughout the day to win over not just the allies but seemingly amenable members of the Opposition, such as the AIADMK and the BJD, which had opposed the Bill thus far.
The result of these negotiations was that the SAD’s averments during the debate on the Bill in the Lok Sabha pertained to their objections to the Bill that had been incorporated as official amendments by the Central government.
SAD MP Prem Singh Chandumajra had proposed an insertion that stated that “…In case of private projects and projects under PPP, consent of at least 80 per cent and 70 per cent of the affected persons shall be compulsory.”
This was adopted as an important official amendment by way of dropping of “social infrastructure” from the five categories of land use that were exempted from the consent clause. This was a point of major criticism because the Akalis were wary of being attacked for acquiring farmland for private schools and hospitals, a move dubbed by the Opposition as a dole to the private sector.
The ruling BJP also held a meeting of its own parliamentary party, where the Rural Development Minister apprised MPs of the “beneficial effects” of the official amendments.
Opposition suggestions The official amendments moved by the government in response to the 52 suggestions received from the Opposition, allies as well as the BJP MPs do not include any change on the two most controversial clauses in the Bill — Social Impact Assessment and consent clause, which were essential prerequisites for acquisition of land in the 2013 Act.
However, an important Opposition suggestion that was adopted as an official amendment was provision of compulsory employment to at least one member of an affected family.
However, this amendment says that the employment will be provided to a member of the family of “farm labourer”, so it is not clear whether the farm owner’s family will also benefit because of this clause.