The ministerial panel vetting the land acquisition bill witnessed strong demand on Thursday that it kick in retrospectively. Urban development minister Kamal Nath is reported to have argued that a window for applying the new bill for old cases of acquisition should be retained.
If the demand gains traction, it could reopen a significant section of the draft legislation which initially had the retrospective clause but was later dropped on the ground that it would hurt industrialization and urbanization.
It was argued that applying new norms of acquisition and R&R to old land deals could delay the issue, a concern that was raised by industry associations and backed by key sections of the government.
The first meeting of the group of ministers headed by Sharad Pawar remained inconclusive but witnessed important demands from commerce minister Anand Sharma and tribal affairs minister Kishore Chandra Deo.
Sources said Nath also said that land price in rural areas could not be fixed in the bill since their cost depended on agricultural output. He was learnt to have suggested that gram panchayats could fix the rates every six months.
These tricky issues are likely to be taken up in the next meeting.