New Delhi: A bill seeking to provide for
acquisition of land for industrial projects, certain
provisions of which were earlier opposed to by Trinamool
Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, has been approved by the
Cabinet, a Union minister said on Tuesday.
"As far as the Land Acquisition Bill is concerned, it has
already been approved by the Cabinet. Now, the question when
will it be introduced in Parliament has to be addressed by the
Parliamentary Affairs Ministry," Rural Development Minister C
P Joshi told reporters here.
Joshi, who presented the quarterly report of his
ministry`s performance, however, did not say when the Cabinet
approved the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill 2007, certain
provisions of which Banerjee had expressed reservations about.
Banerjee, whose party is the second largest constituent
of the UPA, had almost walked out of a Cabinet meeting raising
serious objections over certain provisions of the bill.
She had opposed a major provision in the bill which
provides for private developers to acquire 70 per cent of land
for a proposed industrial project directly from farmers and
land owners. The remaining 30 per cent is to be acquired by
the state government.
It was not immediately clear if the provisions opposed to
by Banerjee were part of the bill approved by the Cabinet.
Banerjee, who was in the forefront of agitations in Singur
and Nandigram in West Bengal on the same issue, had strongly
demanded penal provisions to check use of money and muscle
power by private developers while acquiring land from farmers.
Bureau Report
