The Janata Dal (U) will oppose any attempt to amend the land Acquisition Act 2014, in the upcoming session of Parliament.
Reacting to comments by Union Road Transport, Shipping and Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari that the Centre may try to tweak the land Acquisition Act, 2014, JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi said that his party will oppose any such attempts, both inside and outside Parliament, which proposes any anti-farmer measure in the current Act.
“The party appeals to all political parties supporting farmers and villages to prevent the Government from passing any such ‘black law’,” he said.
Tyagi said that a farmer’s rally would be organised during the Parliament session and various political parties will be invited to put pressure on the Government against introducing any changes in the legislation.Gadkari had recently hinted that the Government may bring in changes to the land Acquisition Act after consulting the States to provide a new impetus to Rs60,000 crore worth of highway projects.
Several projects have been stuck after the land costs went up by over three times after enactment of the new law. The Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways has proposed that the agencies responsible for land procurement — primarily the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) — should be permitted to make an upfront payment to the property owner, which would include rehabilitation charges instead of providing alternative land compensation, as it could only lead to delays and unwanted litigation.
The land Acquisition Act has a provision, which says that the agency acquiring land should give alternate land and in case any built up property is acquired, then such alternative plots have to be offered for resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R).“We will discuss it (land Acquisition Act) with the States and after I have considered their suggestions I will take that to the Prime Minister. We will go by his decision,” Gadkari said in an interview to a TV channel.
“Within 20 days... before the Parliament session, we will come to a conclusion because this is the issue which is related with the future development of this country,” Gadkari said when asked about the timeline of bringing the amendments.