New Delhi: March 18, 2015, DHNS:
Over 100 MPs from 14 political parties, led by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, marched from Parliament to Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday to hand over a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee opposing amendments to the land acquisition bill.
A delegation of 26 leaders, including former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and H D Deve Gowda, JD-U president Sharad Yadav, the SP's Ramgopal Yadav, the CPM's Sitaram Yechury, the CPI's D Raja, the TMC's Derek O' Brien, the DMK's Kanimozhi, the INLD's Dushyant Chautala and the NCP's Praful Patel, met the President.
During their brief meeting, Sonia read out a two-page memorandum listing out the Opposition's concerns over the amendments to the land acquisition bill.
“We have come together to oppose the Narendra Modi government’s amendments to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013,” she told reporters after meeting.
She said the Opposition leaders have requested the President to intervene to protect the interests of farmers, and to impress upon the government not to go ahead with the amendments in the Rajya Sabha.
The Lok Sabha had passed the amendments despite vociferous protests from the Opposition parties, as also constituents of the ruling NDA.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had accused the Opposition of adopting obstructionism as a strategy. “Amendment to the land bill is entirely in favour of rural India. It seeks to provide housing to the poor, and create infrastructure. There is no reason why any political party with any commitment to development must oppose this bill,” he had said. Leaders of the BJD, the AIADMK and the BSP stayed away from the protest march, coordinated by Sharad Yadav. Within a year of losing power to the BJP, the Congress has been able to achieve unity among the Opposition ranks, which has put a question mark over the fate of the land bill.
The march had its share of drama, as the Delhi Police had refused permission citing prohibitory orders around Parliament. Opposition leader raised the issue in both the Houses of Parliament, after which the prohibitory orders were lifted.
No comments:
Post a Comment