The BJP-led NDA government will initiate talks with the opposition parties on the controversial Land Acquisition Bill, after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley returns from the U.S. later this week, senior government sources told The Hindu . However, these talks will be informal, and will be held with each party separately, the sources added, stressing that they will not take the shape of an all-party meeting.
For the Modi administration, of the six ordinances that it needs to convert into Acts of Parliament before March 20, the Land Acquisition Bill is facing the maximum resistance — from the opposition, its own allies and RSS-affiliates alike. It is also, as top BJP sources said, the Bill that is the most crucial for the government’s reforms agenda.
As for the others, the BJP appeared confident that it will be able to get the Insurance Bill through both Houses, as the Congress is supporting it, given that it had introduced the Bill when the UPA was in power. Confirming this, a senior Congress leader said, “It is our Bill, so we support it.”
The Congress leader added that it would insist that all Bills replacing ordinances that had not been to the Select Committee/ Standing Committee should be referred to one or the other before being discussed in the House. The Insurance Bill has been through both. All this came on a day when the government succeeded in passing one of the six Bills, the Citizenship Bill, in the Lok Sabha. The Lower House also continued the discussion on the Mines and Minerals Bill, with Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu reminding the House that it was one of the Bills that needed to be passed in Parliament before March 20, “as it was a constitutional requirement”.
The government introduced the Coal Bill also in the Lok Sabha, but not before it was challenged by a statutory resolution opposing its introduction by BJP MP Bhartuhari Mahtab.
