New Delhi, May 19 - With a Parliamentary panel making a number of proposals that raised the hackles of the industry, government will re-draft the Land Acquisition bill accepting some of its suggestions but is determined to reject the recommendation for not acquiring land for private parties.

Highly placed sources in the Rural Development Ministry said it will not be feasible to ignore some of the provisions in the original Bill such as those dealing with acquisition of land by the government for private business.

The Ministry will incorporate these provisions again in the fresh legislation which will be placed before Parliament in the coming monsoon session. Enough arguments will be given in their support before it is presented to the cabinet for approval, they said.

The earlier bill on land acquisition was introduced in parliament in the monsoon session last year but was referred to the Standing Committee for its recommendations.

The Standing Committee on Rural Development had in its report recommended that the government should not acquire land for private businesses and stressed on a clearer definition of "public purpose" in this regard.

The Committee headed by BJP MP Sumitra Mahajan had wondered why the country should persist with the "anomalous" practice of procuring land for private enterprises, PPP enterprises and even public enterprises.

"The Committee had agreed with most of our points and these will incorporated in the new Bill the way they are but we cannot change some of the points such as the one dealing with private business", the sources added.

Expressing his disagreement with the Parliament Committee recommendation on this issue, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh had yesterday said that private companies also often serve public interest.

"The public purpose can at times be met by government organisations and at times these are met even by private companies also. The notion that private companies serve only private interest is not something that I believe in," Ramesh had told reporters.

Differing with the Committee's suggestions, Ramesh had also said its recommendations are not binding on the government but it is a practice to accept them.

He also gave examples of airports, power plants and infrastructure projects built by private players in support of his view. PTI