NDA's land acquisition Bill anti-farmers: Jairam - Times of India

PATNA: Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said the 'old BJP' was in support of the Congress' Land Acquisition Act, 2013 but the 'new BJP' led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working against farmers' interest and wants to force a new legislation to take over farmers' land without their consent.

Ramesh, who arrived here on a two-day visit to Bihar, also said the BJP has proved itself anti-farmers by making provisions for forceful acquisition of land by removing the consent clause, which was incorporated in the 2013 Act passed by the Manmohan Singh government. "The Land Acquisition Bill-2015, tabled by the Modi government in Parliament, seeks to make land acquisition a business proposition unlike the 2013 Act that provided for acquisition of land for development and that too with the consent of farmers at a better rate. The UPA government had decided to pay the farmers four times more than the market rate for acquired land in rural areas and two times more in urban areas," Ramesh told reporters.

On BJP's stand that Congress's opposition to the proposed law was aimed at derailing development, the former minister said his party was not opposed to land acquisition per se. "But we don't want to break the backbone of our economy by forcing the farmers to forsake their right over land as envisaged by the proposed law of the NDA government," he said, adding the Congress stood for balanced development by giving equal push to industrial and agrarian sectors.

The Congress leader criticized the PM for "making a false claim" that the NDA government brought 13 amendments to the proposed Land Acquisition Bill to ensure necessary compensation to the farmers. "Modi is not telling truth by claiming that the NDA government has brought the Land Acquisition Bill to incorporate some amendments to provide for compensation and rehabilitation," he said.

During an interaction with farmers in the latest 'Mann ki Baat' radio programme, Modi said the NDA government brought the amendments to provide for compensation and rehabilitation to farmers in the event of acquisition of their land as the previous UPA government allegedly had failed to cover these aspects. "Modi's contention is wrong, baseless and white lies," Ramesh reiterated. He said the NDA government has pushed back the farmers' right over land to the 1894 law of the British by proposing to take away the consent clause which was in the interest of the farmers.

Ramesh also called on Bihar CM Nitish Kumar at the latter's residence .

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