Failure in passing land bill will be harmful for farmers, says Venkaiah Naidu

Venkaiah Naidu, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said that failure in passing the land bill would be harmful for the farmers of the country and the government was trying to take regional parties into confidence on the controversial bill.

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015, with nine amendments, was passed in Lok Sabha.

Now, the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces its real test in the Upper House of the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) where it is in a minority.

"If this rehabilitation and fair compensation ordinance and the land bill are not passed then we will be doing harm to farming community," said Naidu in Chennai.

The land acquisition ordinance, which was promulgated in December last, will lapse on April 5 because it could not be converted into a law by Parliament.

Since an ordinance cannot be reissued while Parliament is in session, the government on Friday prorogued the session of Rajya Sabha so that it could re-issue the controversial land acquisition ordinance.

Opposition parties have successfully portrayed proposed changes to a land purchase act, including exemption from getting consent of 80 per cent of landowners for some projects, as anti-farmer - a damaging charge in a country that is still mostly rural.

"NDA government has proposed one employment for the family of the affected person on account of land acquisition, that also will go; are we doing justice to farmers or not? We have to understand . Thirdly the state governments have been given the liberty whether to proceed on the new act or follow the previous act. That being the case where is the problem, we are not able to understand," added Naidu.

On March 17 in a rare show of strength, a united opposition of 14 political parties, led by Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, marched from the Parliament to the presidential palace in New Delhi to protest against the land reform bill.