New Delhi: A Group of Ministers (GoM) formed to examine certain provisions of the controversial Land Acquisition Bill met in New Delhi on Thursday but no decisions were taken in the meeting.
"We will decide next time. This week, I am going to Vietnam and I will be back on October 4. After that, we will meet. Three members gave their views. No decision happened today," Agriculture Minister and GoM Chairman Sharad Pawar said after the meeting.
The government had constituted a 14-member GoM headed by Pawar last week after some ministers had voiced reservations against certain provisions of the Bill.
Rechristened as 'The Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition' Bill, it has been hanging fire since long even though the National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi has been pushing for the law and has framed its broad contours.
The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011 was introduced in Parliament in September last year and was referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee which submitted its recommendations in May.
Meanwhile Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath told reporters that he suggested roping in gram panchayats to ensure fair price of agriculture land and the process of awarding compensation should be hastened.
"My concern is about the fair market value (of land). The fair market value is defined as the circle rate or the rate at which the (land) transfer is made. It is well known that the circle rate does not reflect the market price. The transactive price does not reflect the market price," he said.
He claimed there is a difference in the price of land with high agriculture yield and it should be valued differently.
"I have suggested that gram panchayat must decide the price of land. There must be another stream of valuation to decide the piece of land. The land which has higher agri yield is different from the land which has no agri yield. It is a question of what is the agricultural yield of the land," Nath said.
He suggested that the Bill should also include the issue of compensation paid to farmers. "I want the process to be fast so that farmers get their compensation. One of the major concerns is that huge tracts of land have been acquired and notices have been issued but the compensation has not been paid. This must come within the ambit of the bill," the Minister said.
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