Ministers' group likely to discuss land acquisition bill

New Delhi: The second meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the controversial land acquisition bill will be held on Monday. The 14-member GoM, headed by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, was formed last month after some ministers had voiced reservations against certain provisions of the

Bill.

The GoM is likely to iron out differences among the ministers on the contentious issues, including the clause of prospectivity in the Bill and a question of rehabilitation and resettlement package on par with the land acquisition bill for the affected parties in the mineral-rich forest areas, sources said.

At the last GoM meeting held on September 27 discussions were held among members over the contentious issues in the Bill. Sources said a strong view on having a window of retrospectivity had cropped up during the last meeting with members feeling that the Bill should apply prospectively only.

Considering the protests, the Rural Development Ministry has said it has made changes in the controversial clause which had said that the Bill would apply retrospectively. According to this clause, the Bill would be applicable to all cases of land acquisition before the date of commencement of the Act if the award under the 1894 Act has not been made. The Ministry had made changes in this clause, which said that the "Bill shall apply prospectively only, ie, for new acquisition only, and not retrospectively".