West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday rejected the new land Acquisition Bill saying it a ploy by the Centre to hoodwink the farmers and the political parties opposed to forced land acquisition in one go.
Questioning the Government’s “real intention behind bringing the land Bill before the elections” Banerjee claimed there was no difference between the original Bill and the modified Bill.
“The change they have proposed is just eyewash. We have always been in favour of acquiring land based on cent per cent consent of the owners or from the market. There is no difference between seeking consent from 70 per cent and 80 per cent farmers,” Banerjee said, insisting her Government “would never acquire land forcibly”.
There was no other political party or Government in the country “that understands about land matters more than we do,” she said.
The Chief Minister who had last year come out of the UPA-II Government following differences with the Congress on a host of issues — including rising fuel prices, FDI in retail etc. decried Centre’s economic policy saying there were people “out to sell the country.”
“We are fortunate to have left that alliance a year ago as we disapproved of their faulty economic policy, which is aimed at selling the country. They are running our economy to please a couple of nations,” Banerjee said, adding India’s market was deliberately being weakened to suit the interests of others.
Banerjee wondered as to “why the Government is silent on issues like the fall of Rupee and rising prices of essential commodities”. The “so-called Government of aam aadmi” was doing nothing on rising prices and blissfully watching the poor to perish by the day” she said adding “there is a definite plan to sell this country to some foreign nations.”