New Delhi, Sept. 1: Arun Jaitley is continuing to run down the UPA's 2013 land law, now back in force with the Narendra Modi government allowing its land acquisition ordinance to lapse yesterday.

In a Facebook post, the Union finance minister has virtually nudged the states to amend the 2013 law to suit their purposes.

Jaitley has pointed out that property acquisition figures in the concurrent list. He has argued that the states can enact their own laws on concurrent list subjects even if these laws are at odds with the central legislation, as long as the President ratifies the state law.

"The states are thus fully empowered to amend the 2013 land law," Jaitley has said in the post, titled "The Land Ordinance - The Obvious Answers". He has added that one state - Gujarat - has already tweaked it.

"The states can provide for alternative mechanism which balances the interests of farmers and also provides for land required for acquisition."

Jaitley has dismissed the Congress's claim that the Centre's decision not to re-promulgate the land ordinance suggests it has buckled under Opposition pressure.

The ordinance's objective was to "give a certain amount of flexibility to the states", the finance minister has argued, and that flexibility continues.

Although the 2013 act "occupies the field" while the NDA's land bill is being vetted by a House panel, Jaitley has argued, the Centre will have no issues if a state wishes to amend the land law. The NDA's bill echoes the ordinance but unconfirmed reports say the government plans to drop most of its controversial clauses.

Jaitley has defended the now-lapsed ordinance saying it had been brought in to offset the "ambiguities and obvious errors" in the 2013 law.

"The provisions of the act would prevent the development of the rural areas through rural infrastructure and further prevent job opportunities created in those areas by industrialisation. This was the principal objective of the central government when the ordinance... was issued," Jaitley has written.