Joint Parliamentary panel seeks opinion of public, stakeholders on land bill

The joint committee of Parliament examining the land bill has sought the opinion of the common man and various stakeholders on the controversial legislation.

The Lok Sabha secretariat has uploaded a copy of the bill on its website and has asked various public bodies, organisations, associations, individuals and other stakeholders to give their inputs by June 8. Parliamentary panels often use public opinion while finalising their reports on legislations.

The 30-member joint panel has been asked to submit its report on the first day of the Monsoon session which usually commences from some time in the middle of July.

Almost the entire Opposition and even some allies of the ruling NDA like Shiv Sena and Swabhimani Pakshya, are against various provisions of the amendment bill brought by the government.

The 20 members of the Lok Sabha who are on the joint panel include KV Thomas, Rajiv Satav (both Congress), Anand Rao Adsul (Shiv Sena), Kalyan Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), B Mahtab (BJD), Mohammad Salim (CPI-M), Chirag Paswan (LJP) and Udit Raj, Anurag Thakur and Ganesh Singh (all BJP).

The 10 Rajya Sabha members include Ram Narain Dudi (BJP), Jairam Ramesh, Panna Lal Punia, Digvijay Singh (all Cong), Ram Gopal Yadav (SP), Sharad Yadav (JD-U), Sharad Pawar (NCP), Derek O'Brien (TMC) and Rajpal Singh Saini (BSP).

The government, which had promulgated ordinance twice on the bill since December last after it faced continuous resistance, had agreed to refer it to the committee, during the recently concluded Parliament session.