New Delhi: Reaching out to farmers through his monthly radio programme ‘Mann ki Baat’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the Land Acquisition Bill is aimed at the welfare of farmers and villages.

“We want the welfare of the farmer, their children and the villages. We want to overcome the shortcomings,” the PM said in his 30-minute speech, which aired on All India Radio.

The PM told farmers that lies were being spread about changes in the Land Acquisition Bill and that they should not be misled.

“I am perplexed to learn about so many rumours spread against the bill (land acquisition)… Government is only addressing lacunae in the Land Act of 2013; willing to consider suggestions that benefit farmers,” PM Modi said. (Highlights of PM Modi’s ‘Mann ki Baat’)

The bill sailed through the Lok Sabha, where the government has a big majority, but is yet to be presented in the Rajya Sabha in the face of the Congress-led Opposition’s firm rejection of it as “anti-farmer”.

While passing the bill in the Lok Sabha, the government introduced nine amendments to placate critics and get opposition parties on board, but it has failed to do so. On Tuesday, 14 parties marched to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in protest against the land bill.

Faced with such opposition, the government has not introduced the bill in the Rajya Sabha, where it is in a minority, as it fears that the united Opposition will send the bill to a Parliamentary committee for scrutiny, thus blocking its immediate passage.

The Parliament closed on Friday for a month-long recess in the Budget Session. The ordinance or emergency executive order that the bill seeks to ratify, lapses on April 5, during the recess.