Build consensus on land reforms quickly: Arun Jaitley

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, July 15, 2015: The government on Wednesday said a consensus was needed quickly to pass a business-friendly land reform law, or else a legislative deadlock would have to be broken by allowing the states to pass their own measures. "Either the Centre must build a coalition and pass the land bill quickly, or give the flexibility to the states to pass their own laws," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told a news conference in New Delhi.

Jaitley spoke after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a NITI Aayog meeting, which was attended by only 16 of the 29 chief ministers and skipped by all nine Congress CMs, apart from their counterparts in Odisha, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

Jaitley, riled by the opposition boycott, said their action was against the spirit of federalism. "The chief ministers who boycotted the NITI Aayog meeting must introspect whether their action was in sync with the spirit of cooperative federalism," he said, accepting that a number of chief ministers who attended wanted a rethink on the controversial land acquisition bill.

"The CMs said that either Centre must evolve a consensus, or give enough flexibility to states to frame their own land laws," Jaitley said, claiming that most states were unable to implement the Land Acquisition Act passed by the previous UPA government.

PM Modi has been unable to pass amendments that make it easier for the government and the business to buy land for development, because the BJP lacks a majority in the Rajya Sabha. The land bill is a key element of the NDA’s economic agenda.

The opposition Congress party, which lost the 2014 general elections, opposes the changes, which it denounces as anti-farmer. Another fight over the land bill looms at Parliament’s monsoon session which is due to begin next week.   

 

Courtesy: Indiatoday