Govt secretaries assigned with the job of justifying the controversial clauses in the bill escape meeting
New Delhi : The all important meeting of the parliamentary committee considering Modi government’s land bill with secretaries of various departments could not transact this business, as the officials did not turn up. “ One secretary Amitabh Kant wrote that he is out of the country and others were busy attending another meeting convened by the minister for parliamentary affairs Venkaiah Naidu”, said a member adding so this is the “importance the government gives to the bill”.
These secretaries were supposed to convince the committee about the justification of the controversial clauses in the bill. Now this meeting will be held on July 22nd, and the deadline for submitting the report would have to be extended from July 27th to August 3rd, leaving just ten days for the bill to be passed by the parliament.
Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien tweeted, “Meeting or mockery? Last time parliament committee on land bill did not function because MPs turned up govt officials did not. Repeated today.”
Most of the non-BJP members of the committee including NCP leader Sharad Pawar, O’Brien, BJD leader Bhatruhari Mahtab and Jairam Ramesh of the Congress also registered their protests with the committee chairman S S Ahluwalia about the remarks from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the context of the opposition to the bill. We are debating the contents of the bill, and they are already suggesting ways and means for the states to defeat the objectives of this exercise”, said a member. Ahluwalia is reported to have assured the members that the committee is answerable only to the parliament.
The proceedings in the committee have so far gone against the government, with authoritative sources claiming that 670 of the 672 submissions on the bill have gone against NDA and in terms of the oral depositions 50 of the 52 have opposed the bill.” This also includes the organisations of the Sangh Parivar – Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, Swabhiman Andolan (K N Govindacharya) have opposed the bill and demanded that 2013 bill passed by the UPA should be brought back”, the member added.
It is also being pointed that the government’s argument about the states having the freedom to pass their own land acquisition laws is fallacious.”
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Pawar leads oppn charge against PM
New Delhi : NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday took the lead on behalf of the opposition parties to slam Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a meeting of a joint committee of Parliament for calling chief ministers to discuss the contentious land acquisition bill in the NITI Ayog governing body on Wednesday despite the fact that it was pending before the committee.
Asserting that the PM has insulted Parliament for forum hopping when the committee is seized of the Bill as per wish of both the Houses of Parliament, Pawar asked the committee’s chairman S S Ahluwalia (a BJP leader) to complain to both the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman to reprimand Modi for overstepping a Parliament body. The Congress members said the party leadership directed its chief ministers to boycott the NITI Ayog meeting and they all wrote to the PM asking why discuss the land bill when it is before the parliamentary committee.
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