-The Telegraph New Delhi: NDA-ruled states cannot "wait indefinitely for consensus" on amendments to the Centre's land bill and want to pass their own laws for smooth acquisitions, finance minister Arun Jaitley said today. Some lawyers said while many states have framed amended rules in the past, these were at variance but not in "complete contradiction" to the central land law. Jaitley was speaking after a meeting of the governing council of the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Six of the 30 MPs on the joint parliamentary committee examining the land acquisition bill appear undecided, with the BJP hoping to woo them and gain a majority on the panel. The score is now tied 12-12, which means the government needs the support of at least four of the six remaining members, who have so far kept their cards close to their chest. These half-dozen are from the...

-The Hindu ‘The options will allow both sides to claim victory’ Following directions from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), “thinking heads” in the Modi government have begun to formulate a strategy for breaking the impasse in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) over the controversial Land Acquisition Bill. Options are being discussed to find a meeting ground for the government and the Opposition parties on three contentious provisions of the Bill — the consent...

-Business Standard Swadeshi Jagran Manch asked the Centre to come out with a comprehensive land use policy instead of a piecemeal approach to the issue The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliated economic policy group, along with Communist Party of India (CPI) affiliated All India Kisan Sabha on Tuesday made common cause in criticising the land Bill brought by the Narendra Modi government. In its presentation to the parliamentary...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A joint parliamentary panel examining the Narendra Modi government's land acquisition bill has been flooded with objections to the proposed legislation from those who have deposed before it so far, sources have said. The Confederation of Indian Industry is the only one among 34 individuals and organisations to have supported the changes the bill seeks to make to the current law, passed in December 2013 under UPA rule,...