The contentious Land Acquisition Ordinance will be re-promulgated before it lapses on April 5, the Union government decided on Friday evening, though it will mean taking on a virtually united opposition. This was underscored by the simultaneous release of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s letter to Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on the subject, and the decision by the Janata Parivar parties to adopt a protest programme.
This decision, taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs here, coincided with Ms. Gandhi making public her letter, reiterating the Opposition’s objections to the Bill, terming it anti-farmer. Mr. Gadkari was one of the moving spirits behind the changes made to the 2013 Land Act.
At the Janata Parivar meeting on Friday, a programme, “Delhi se gaon tak”, was chalked out for States where it has a presence — Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Jharkhand. The Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, JD(U) leaders Sharad Yadav and K.C. Tyagi and the RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav and Prem Gupta participated.
All this came a day after Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu called on President Pranab Mukherjee. The Secretary, Parliamentary Affairs, will now write to the Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha, to convey to the President’s office the decision to prorogue the Upper House. The Union Cabinet will officially endorse the decision to reissue the ordinance.
