Political battle on land Bill in offing, says Jaitley

New York, March 3

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has acknowledged that the government may be bracing for a “political battle” on the Land Bill in Parliament, but is confident that the insurance law will get “through”.

The legislations on coal and minerals, he said, will be carried through “relatively easy” because they are “logical and rational”.

With the government having a problem with numbers in the Rajya Sabha, he feels that there is an “obvious obstacle” when it comes to reforms measures that require legislative approval.

“While there are not many serious obstacles, one obvious obstacle is that those steps which require legislative approval... some of them will have to go through a procedure while some of the Bills will be carried relatively easily because they are rational and logical bills,” he said addressing students and faculty at Columbia University here.

Arun Jaitley was replying to a question on what obstacles he sees in implementing economic reforms and measures.

On the Land Bill, Jaitley said, “Certainly land becomes a slogan. Opposition will.....even though in the previous government when it was passed there were voices of protest. I think they may want to use it for a political battle Therefore, you will have to go through the whole Parliamentary process.”

The government has introduced a Bill to replace an ordinance promulgated last year making changes to the Land Acquisition Act passed during the UPA regime in 2013. — PTI