BJP MP S.S. Ahluwalia has been appointed chairman of a Joint Committee of Parliament that will go into the provisions of the controversial Land Acquisition Bill. The 30-member Committee comprises 20 members of the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. The Committee will submit its report on the first day of the monsoon session.
The NDA government agreed to refer the Land Bill to the joint committee after it faced continuous resistance by almost the entire Opposition and even some of its own allies like Shiv Sena on various provisions of the amended legislation. The agreement was reached during the recently concluded Parliament session. The bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha. The government had promulgated ordinances twice on the bill since December last year. The Congress and the Left parties have been targeting the ruling dispensation as anti-farmer and pro-corporate.