The National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements (NAPM) and lok Shakti Abhiyan on Tuesday described the approval of an ordinance amending the land Acquisition Act 2013 by the Union Cabinet on Monday as unacceptable, anti-poor and anti-farmer.

Prafulla Samantara of the lok Shakti Abhiyan told mediapersons here that the Union Cabinet’s decision approving the ordinance even before the law has been actually implemented on the ground remind the anti democratic and authoritarian streak of the NDA Government. “We fail to understand that what emergency occurred at this moment forcing the Government to take the ordinance route. This is only being done as a measure to benefit the corporate houses and nothing else,” said Samantara.

He further stated that the land Acquisition Act 2013 was framed after consulting all the stakeholders and over a period of seven years after going through two Parliamentary Standing committees (2007 and 2009), both headed by senior BJP leaders, Kalyan Singh and Sumitra Mahajan.

“The explanation that an ordinance became necessary to deal with matters arising out of the Section 105 of the Act is completely false. We believe, it is not only misleading but again obfuscating what the Act mandates. As per the Act, the Government was to bring a notification in the Parliament in year 2014 to extend the provisions of the compensation and R&R to the people affected by land acquisition carried through the 13 Central Acts, as mentioned in Fourth Schedule,” he added.

He further added that the dilution of the need for the consent and conducting of the Social Impact Assessment for all the projects is completely uncalled for and will only make matters worse. He added that the Abhijan will oppose the ordinance’s passage in the Parliament.