Shiv Sena joins opposition meeting on Land bill strategy

New Delhi: NDA constituent Shiv Sena, which has reservations on the Land Bill, on Tusday huddled with Opposition parties to work out a strategy to thwart the proposed changes in the 2013 Act which are up for consideration before a Joint Committee of Parliament.

While the main Opposition Congress on Tuesday submitted its list of amendments to the parliamentary panel seeking withdrawal of changes in the Act and asking for uniform compensation, CPI(M) will submit its recommendations soon.

The parliamentary joint committee headed by BJP MP S S Ahluwalia, on Monday had decided to seek two more days' time till August 5 to submit its report, for which Congress and some other opposition parties are striving to come up with joint amendments.

The meeting that took place at the residence of NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday was attended by Anandrao Adsul from Shiv Sena, members from Congress including K V Thomas, Kalyan Banerjee from Trinamool Congress, YSR Congress MP Vara

Prasadarao Velagapalli and Md Salim from (CPI-M) among others, sources said.

Sources in Congress said that it had sought restoration of the consent of 80 per cent of land-owners to be obtained for private projects and that of 70 per cent for PPP ones.

The present bill exempts five categories from this provision - defence, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors and infrastructure projects, including public-private partnership (PPP) projects where the government

owns the land.

The 2013 Act also required that a social impact assessment be conducted to identify affected families and calculate the impact when land is acquired. This provision has been done away with.

BJD and Trinamool Congress have already written to the Joint Committee of Parliament about their amendments seeking total withdrawal of the NDA's bill.

The strategy of Congress is to somehow get a majority of members in the panel to oppose the main amendments being brought by the government in the UPA's land Act.

In the meeting at Pawar's residence, Congress, Trinamool Congress and CPI-M said that they are for "total withdrawal" of the NDA's land bill.

Shiv Sena is not seeking total withdrawal of NDA's bill but has its reservations against the amendments, which removed provisions of consent clause and social impact survey from the bill that existed in UPA's land law.

Tuesday's meeting at Pawar's residence was aimed exploring the possibility work out a joint amendment, the sources said.