The Land Acquisition Bill, which strengthens landowners’ rights during acquisition for development, has finally received the nod of the Union Cabinet, and is likely to be introduced in Parliament during the final week of the winter session.

The final version of The Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill was approved by the Cabinet on Thursday, more than a year after Parliament sent the earlier avatar to a Standing Committee. In the months since, the bill has gone through multiple changes, been vetted by Cabinet — where infrastructure ministries objected to provisions seen as hurdles to investment and industry — and been the subject of three rounds of discussion in a ministerial panel headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.