Trade union leader Mayadhar Nayak on Monday decried the Ordinance on the land Acquisition promulgated by the NDA Government and alleged that it aims at preserving, protecting and defending the vested interests of industrialists and business houses. “The centuries-old British land Acquisition Act commencing from1894 till 2013 was given a cosmetic change by Manmohan Singh Government without diving deep into the subject matter. Now without taking the opposition parties into confidence, without consulting land losers, the Narendra Modi Government has brought an Ordinance on land Acquisition in a hot haste, keeping all our countrymen in dark,” said Nayak here at a Press conference.
Stating that such a sensitive Ordinance is nothing but an economic war drill of the NDA Government, Nayak said it remains fully silent about deplorable plight of the seasonally employed agricultural workers and labourers. “If the land is used to let in case of agricultural purposes, then where the impediments to extend its use comes in case of industries,” asked Nayak.
Nayak said, “If the Government is allowing lease, then extending lease to industrialists and business houses over the lands acquired by descendants over generations with the record of rights is not a grotesque proposition at all.” In spite of parting with the lands belonging to generations past to the industrialists till existence of the sun and the moon, it is preferable for lands to let. This concept not only protects the interest of the land owners and peasant community, but also vouchsafes for new enterprises, he added.