By IANS,
Shimla : The Himachal Pradesh assembly Monday referred a draft bill to amend the land reforms act to change land-owning norms in the state to a select house committee.
The Himachal Pradesh Tenancy and Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill, listed for passing, was introduced in the house April 8. It proposed to amend the act to bar non-agriculturists from purchasing apartments, buildings or industrial plots from promoters or colonisers registered under the State Apartment and Property Regulation Act, without permission of the government.
Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Suresh Bhardwaj said the bill should be referred to a select committee for consideration, as it was an important development for the state.
However, the opposition Congress, which opposed the bill, was absent from the house. The party members earlier staged a walkout to protest the government’s decision not to register a case against police officials who were responsible for baton-charging Congress activists in Shimla Saturday.
Congress leaders – Kaul Singh Thakur and Vidya Stokes – had also moved an amendment, seeking to drop all changes proposed in the bill.
Later talking to reporters, Stokes said: “The manner in which the BJP government has sought to relax Section 118 of the State Tenancy and Land Reforms Act to benefit colonisers has expressed doubts about the intentions of the government. It’s for the first time that the law is being amended to oblige realtors.”
“If the bill is passed, the amendment would create a paradoxical situation where a land owner cannot sell his land directly to a non-agriculturist but a coloniser can acquire it, develop plots, build flats and sell it to anyone,” she said.