Land acquisition bill to be brought in this session: Ramesh

Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said Centre will bring in revised Land Acquisition Bill in the forthcoming session of Parliament.

Anand (Guj): Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said Centre will bring in revised Land Acquisition Bill in the forthcoming session of Parliament as there was a political consensus on it. "We will bring the revised bill in this session. All political parties want to get it passed," Ramesh said here. "States have given their suggestions and I have also met opposition leaders like Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj and had discussion with them," Ramesh said, adding, all the political parties wanted the 1984 act to be changed. "Land acquisition was done forcibly till now and farmers were not given adequate compensation, but this bill will address these concerns," he said. "There have been cases where land (acquired for public purposes) has been utilised for building shopping malls or private housing societies," Ramesh added. The Parliament session will start on April 22. An all-party meeting was held in New Delhi on April 9 to iron out differences on the bill. PTI