Congress is not worried about the farmers’ land, but it is concerned about its own political ground under cover of fight for farmers, said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and Madhya Pradesh president Nandkumar Singh Chouhan. Chouhan in a statement on Sunday said, “The Congress has got exposed over the issue when discussion on amendment Bill was going on in Parliament as per the wish of the Opposition and the grand old party at the place of building consensus was busy in doing hooliganism.”
Chouhan further said that Congress’ objection was also baseless because the Congress-ruled States have expressed before the Prime Minister that due to the land Acquisition Act 2013, the development works in the States have come to a halt. Then, the Congress does not have the answer that why it reduced to half the compensation fixed as per the land Acquisition Act, 2013. It also did not apprehended in acquiring the fertile land during UPA rule, he added.
He said that the intent of the amendment was that in future repressive incidences like Bhatta Parsaul and Singur should not be repeated. The land Acquisition Amendment Act is a complete guarantee of the current ruling regime to stop repression against farmers, he added. He said that the Congress does accept that due to the amendment if acquisition is done in urban areas than 20 per cent of the land would remain with the actual owner of the land. It is clear in the amendment that first of all the barren land would be acquired, acquirement of the fertile land would be the last thing to be done if needed. Work on making the barren land as per industrialisation requirements has already begun. Due to this, it is expected that the land needs would be fulfilled, he added.