By IANS,
New Delhi : Expressing concern over delay in introduction of the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill and the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, the parliamentary standing committee on rural development has urged the government to come up with the bills in the current session of parliament.
In its report tabled in the Lok Sabha Friday, the committee noted with disappointment that even after two years of the cabinet approving the introduction of the two bills in parliament, the government had not been able to do so.
“With the increasing number of litigations in land acquisition and rehabilitation across the country and discontentment in the farming community at large in the process of land acquisition, the committee urges the government to come up with the bills in the current session of parliament,” said the panel.
The committee also said there was need for computerisation of land records and asked the rural development ministry to take the issue of capacity building and training more seriously.
The panel expressed concern over the huge unspent balances and said regular audit and monitoring of the projects must be done instead of the present system of quarterly progress reports.
The panel also called for more funds for the panchayats by the panchayati raj ministry.