Modi says willing to make changes to land decree

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government is ready to make changes to an executive decree it issued to make it easier for businesses to buy farm land for infrastructure and industry, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told lawmakers on Friday. The decree is aimed at unlocking hundreds of billions of dollars of projects stuck for want of land, but opposition parties and rights activists say it discriminates against farmers. "We are ready to fix anything (in the decree) that is against farmers," Modi said. Modi issued an ordinance in December to exempt projects in defence, rural electrification, rural housing and industrial corridors from the provisions of a law enacted by the previous Congress party government that required the consent of 80 percent of affected landowners for any deal. He also ended the need for companies to conduct a social impact study for such projects, which would involve public hearings and could drag on for years. The decree is a temporary order and needs the approval of both houses of parliament to take permanent effect. It will lapse if parliament does not ratify it in this session. Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoys the biggest majority in decades in the lower house of parliament but is dependent on Congress to pass bills in the upper house that represents 29 Indian states. Demand for land in densely populated countryside has led to increasing tension between the investment needed to create jobs for the one million people who enter the workforce each month and the interests of farmers and tribal communities. (Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Alan Raybould)