The minister expressed his stand on the issue a day after members of the BJP in the joint parliamentary committee on Land Bill, moved amendments to do away with contentious clauses from the legislation.
Seeking to play down the Bharatiya's Janata Party's decision to roll back contentious amendments of the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2015, Minister of Rural Development Birender Singh said the Centre would never sacrifice interest of farmers' and that it was always open to suggestions. The minister said that the decision to move amendments similar to those moved by Congress cannot be termed as a 'climbdown', as they were always open to 'good suggestions'.
The minister expressed his stand on the issue a day after members of the BJP in the joint parliamentary committee on Land Bill, moved amendments to do away with contentious clauses from the legislation.
Singh hinted that the Centre is likely to accept the suggestions and changes made in the report of the joint parliamentary committee. "We are ready to accept all good suggestions made before the parliamentary panel, whether made by political parties or farmer organisations," Singh said. He was also alluding to the criticism of the Bill by RSS affiliate bodies such as Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Bharatiya Kisan Sangh.
He also said that the need for a new law will be slim. "If there is a consensus in the report, there will be no issue. If there are dissent notes, we will be open to them and examine them. We won't go ahead with something that will sacrifice the interests of the farmers," Singh said.
He added, "We are sticking to our stand. Even when we referred the matter to the committee, we had said that the process of acquisition had to sped up, but, we were clear that farmers' interests should not be ignored"
During Monday's joint parliamentary committee meeting, like Congress and other opposition members, 11 BJP members moved amendments to do away with nine contentious amendments including those related to social impact assessment and consent clause. Effectively, this will make the NDA's Bill similar to UPA's 2013 law on land acquisition.
The parliamentary panel's meeting on Tuesday though was cancelled after Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspended 25 MP's of Congress. The Congress backed by other opposition parties, demanded postponement of the meeting as Congress' MP Rajeev Satav from Hingoli, a member of the committee was one among the 25 suspended by Mahajan. The committee which was given an extension to submit their report till August 7, will have to seek another extension. The next meeting will be now held on August 10.
In the next meeting, the committee is slated to debate three remaining contentious amendments of the Land Bill that and there is likely to be a consensus on the issue.
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