On Saturday, a delegation of Gujarat Congress leaders met President Pranab Mukherjee and submitted a memorandum requesting him not to give assent to the Gujarat Agricultural Land Ceiling (Amendment) Bill- 2015 and the Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime Bill-2015 (GCTOC). The delegation of Congress leaders, led by Ahmed Patel and Shankarsinh Vaghela, said that the original intention of the land ceiling law was to acquire surplus land and allot it to the needy people like cattle-breeders, landless persons, farm labourers and families with small landholdings. The amended law intended to allot the surplus land available with the local urban self-government bodies to industries and corporates.They said that the land ceiling law passed by the Gujarat government in 2015, which was against the interest of the people, had also not been sanctioned by the state governor and the later referred it to the central government for Presidential approval. They said that this indicated that there was some flaw in the provisions of the bill.
