Why is the ruling party unable to pass 3 very important bills? The National Advisory Council draws its exalted status from the fact that UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi heads it. But its inability to get its way on three new Bills indicates that its influence is waning. A couple of weeks ago, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) cleared the drafts of two significant Bills — the Food Security Bill and...

-The Business Standard   A major blow was delivered to the National Advisory Council’s capacity to intervene in decisionmaking by the government with the Ministry of Rural development sticking to the formulation that if a private company wants to set up industry, it must buy 70 per cent of the land itself. All that the state government will do is buy for the investor, 30 per cent of the land, that...

-The Times of India   The government is set to accept the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council's recommendation to cover 75% rural and 50% urban population under a food security law, but wants to keep the percentages outside the language of the Act itself. UPA-2 is inclined to set the percentage of population covered in a notification or schedule accompanying the Act so that it can be revised by executive order...

-The Asian Age   The draft Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill being vetted by the Union law ministry maintains the 70:30 formula — a private developer has to acquire at least 70 per cent of the land, the remainder to be done by the government. This goes against the National Advisory Council proposal that the government acquire 100 per cent of land, while West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s stand is that...

The Union Rural Development Ministry has retained in the draft of an amendment a partial government role in land acquisition for private investors, vetoing the diametrically conflicting views of Mamata Banerjee and a panel headed by Sonia Gandhi. The draft finalised by the ministry to amend the land acquisition act has stuck to the 70-30 formula under which the private investor is expected to buy at least 70 per cent of...