Land Acquisition Bill: All-party meet called on Thursday

New Delhi: An all-party meeting has been called on Thursday to discuss the Land Acquisition Bill, which seeks to strengthen landowners' rights during acquisition for development. This will be the third all-party meeting on the Land Acquisition Bill.

The parties, which failed to arrive on a consensus on the bill in the last two meetings, were asked to give their suggestions by April 15 and six parties are reported to have submitted theirs. Sources said while there might not be a consensus on the contours of the bill, there could be unanimity on at least introducing the bill in the coming session of Parliament.

The controversial bill was deferred by the Lok Sabha till the Budget Session following the pleas by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Rajnath Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Basudeb Acharia (CPI-M) and Saugata Roy (Trinamool Congress) seeking more time to discuss the provisions of the bill which would have a wide ranging impact on farmers and industries.

The bill provides a fair compensation to land owners in both rural and urban areas with the stipulation that consent of 80 per cent of the people for acquiring land for private industry is necessary.