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Land Bill pits Shiv Sena against BJP

Maha party skips meet, says won't support Bill in its present form

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Fissures surfaced within the BJP-led NDA over the land acquisition bill, as most of the Shiv Sena MPs skipped the meeting of parliamentarians of the ruling alliance partners to discuss the issue.

Shiv Sena leaders said the party had reservations over some provisions of the bill. "We are not attending the meeting. We have to decide on what line to take on the bill within the party and then we will discuss with government," Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut told dna.

Of the 21 Shiv Sena MPs (18 in Lok Sabha and 3 in Rajya Sabha), five including Shrikant Shinde, Arvind Sawant and Rahul Shewale, turned up for the meeting of the NDA on Tuesday evening. Asked why some MPs had attended this meeting despite the decision to stay away, a party leader said it would have to be found out, but added that they would put forth the Shiv Sena's views on the legislation. However, sources said there were indications of differences within the party on the strategy on the issue. The Shiv Sena wants the government to address the concern on the consent clause. The government in its ordinance did away with the consent clause for acquiring land for five areas – industrial corridors, PPP projects, rural infrastructure, affordable housing and defence. The land acquisition bill passed by the Congress-led UPA mandated that developers get consent of upto 80 per cent of people whose land is acquired for private projects and 70 per cent for PPP projects.

However, the sources said the party is trying to talk to top leaders in the government about their concerns and the issue would not impact their alliance.

"The farmers have brought you to power with great expectations, do not commit the sin of throttling them," said Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray.

The government had introduced the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) bill 2015 in Lok Sabha, replacing the ordinance promulgated after the winter session. As the Opposition protested against the bill, BJP's ally Swabhimani Paksha's Raju Shetti also opposed it. "Though we are in alliance with the NDA, still I strongly oppose the Bill," Shetti said.

The government seems to have taken a brazen it out approach on the land acquisition bill. Just before the house met on Tuesday, prime minister Narendra Modi told BJP MPs that they should aggressively defend the bill. In his short, but crisp address at the parliamentary party meeting, the prime minister said a party built on the principles of Deendayal Upadhyay could not go against the interests of the farmers and described the bill as one good particularly for the farmers. He indicated that the government would not go on the back foot but would consider positive amendments to the bill.

At the NDA meeting, parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu and other senior leaders asked the members to effectively counter the "lies" being propagated by the Opposition on the land acquisition amendment, sources said. The minister clarified some apprehensions about the bill, which has been dubbed anti-farmer by the Opposition and farmers' organisations.

Meanwhile, BJP chief Amit Shah has formed an eight-member committee to seek farmers's suggestions on land acquisition bill.

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