With the first half of the Budget Session coming to an end, the fate of the crucial legislation of the UPA — Land Bill and Food Bill — hangs in balance, as serious differences persist among various political parties on key provisions of the legislative proposals. While the government will look for passage of the two bills in the later half of the Budget Session next month, the concerned ministries are keeping their fingers crossed.
Though the all party meeting on the Land Bill, which was scheduled for March 20, had to be cancelled, the government would again reach out to the Opposition parties to arrive at a consensus on the legislative proposal which seeks to replace the 100 years old law on the land acquisition. The government has shared the details of the amendments to the Land Bill, which were approved by the Cabinet, with the Opposition parties and alliance partners but assurance on support is still eluding, sources said.
The Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party is opposed to the acquisition of multi-cropped agricultural land in the light of the growing population and demands for more foodgrains. The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress is averse to the very idea of the state playing any role in the acquisition of land. The BJP leaders are also linking the demands of the food security with the land acquisition.
While the Union Cabinet rushed to clear the National Food Security Bill late in the ongoing Budget Session of the Parliament, the ministry of food and consumer affairs in its meeting with the food ministers of all the state governments had failed to arrive at a consensus on the legislative proposal, which is also a promise of the Congress in its 2007 manifesto to the people. The AIADMK-led Tamil Nadu remains firm that the state be excluded from the ambit of the Food Bill, as it has a better scheme in place, which gives universal access to subsidised foodgrains to the people. The states like Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal have demanded that the reform in the public distribution system (PDS) should precede the implementation of the Food Security Bill.
Even within the UPA, senior ministers are worried at the prospect of the escalation of the Food Subsidy to the extent of about `1,25,000 crores if the bill was to be implemented.