BURDWAN: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said she had to skip the NITI Aayog parleys in Delhi in view of her 100th district administrative meeting, which was "equally important".
Asked about the reasons for staying away from the deliberations of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog, she said: "NITI Aayog meeting is of course important. But our administrative meeting is equally important."
Banerjee said the NITI Aayog meeting had been called with the sole agenda of discussing the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015, popularly called the Land Acquisition Bill but her Trinamool Congress had "already made known our stand" on it.
The Trinamool has been steadfastly opposed to the bill, calling it "anti-famer".
The proposed legislation which Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is keen to pass in parliament is facing stiff hurdles with opposition parties and even some government allies coming out against it. Passed by the Lok Sabha in which the government has a comfortable majority, it is stuck in the Rajya Sabha where the numbers are not in favour.