The Rajasthan state assembly on Friday referred to the Select Committee the Land Revenue (Amendment and Validation) Bill despite full fledged debate on it in the House.
This is second instance in less than a week when the government has changed its mind at the last minute on its own legislation and opted to deferred its passage.
The House concluded a full-fledged debate on land revenue Bill that turned acremonius on several occasions and also marred by move of a walkout by the Opposition.
Notably, some of the ruling BJP members even expressed their reservation over certain provisions in the Bill.
The Opposition benches obviously were also dissatisfied over a number of clauses in the Bill and held that the intend of the government is to provide government land to “crony industrialists” on easy(soft) terms.
The members’ main objection was on provision of delegating powers of change of land use to the Rajasthan Industrial & Investment Corporation (RIICO). The members wanted to know why the powers be given to RIICO that presently is vested in development authorities (DAs) and local bodies.
The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Tika Ram Julie said that the Bill be circulated into public domain for seeking views of common man and stake holders.
However, Speaker Vasudev Devnani rejected the LoP’s demand. Chair’s refusal to the demand forced the Congress members to stage a walk out.
However, the government instead of moving the Bill for passage, changed the stance and proposed to refer the Bill to Select Committee.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Rajasthan Groundwater (Conservation and Management) Bill 2025 also met the same fate. Reservation over certain provisions and clauses in the Bill among members of the Treasury Benches as well as the Opposition, forced the government to refer the Bill to the House Panel.