‘land acquisition Act to be protested countrywide’
Narmada Bachao Andolan leader and National Alliance People’s Movement (NAPM) advisor Medha Patkar on Tuesday demanded a CBI probe into the three mega scams in Odisha in the respects of mining, land and house allotment and forestland loot on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.
Addressing reporters here, Patkar said she was astonished to hear that the State Government, which is yet to give land patta to several tribals in the State under the FRA Act, has allotted several houses, plots, valuable land including forest land to ruling party leaders, bureaucrats and other influential people.
Besides the land and house allotment and forestland scams, Patkar also raised the issue mining scam and demanded a probe by the CBI into the loot of natural resources by companies.
She said protests would be made against the Polavaram project as it would displace around three lakh tribals of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Besides, people’s organisations would strongly protest Vedanta’s expansion plan at lanjigarh, construction of the lower Suktel Project without consent of the people and other anti-people projects in the State and country.
The activist said that more than 200 people’s organisations in the country, which are working with the NAPM, would protest the Central Government’s move to amend the Right to Fair Compensation, Transparency in land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Act, 2013. “The Centre is trying to amend two key provisions of the Act, consent of the land holders and ‘Social Impact Assessment’, which would help the industrialists grab land from the poor,” said Patkar, adding, “We will protest the amendment countrywide immediately to exert pressure on the Government.”