Land and land reforms minister and chairman of the committee, Abdur Rezzak Mollah, said he would request Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim to put off the West Bengal Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2006 till the next budget session.

The decision came after the panel’s failure to reach a consensus on the ceiling relaxation because of stiff opposition from the CPM’s partners in the Left Front and the Opposition.

“A lack of consensus in the all-party panel has prevented the government from pushing the bill through. But the panel today unanimously gave its nod to defer the bill till the next budget session,” Mollah said at Writers’ Buildings.

According to CPM insiders, the party leadership had directed Mollah to request the Speaker to defer the legislation till they convinced the allies.

The bill, lying with the committee for two years, had sparked a furore when it proposed relaxation of the rural land ceiling for industry, commerce and infrastructure projects.

It did not explicitly mention that the aim was to facilitate special economic zones or industrial parks but the Left partners claimed it would reverse the effect of land reforms and lead to “corporate zamindari”. The bill was then referred to the select committee for “thorough scrutiny”.

The present law does not allow a person to hold more than 12 acres of irrigated land and 17 acres of non-irrigated land. The objective of the amendment was to allot more land to industry and infrastructure plans.