Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien on Wednesday said that his party will vote against the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012 as it is against the Government having any role in land acquisition on behalf of industry.
Participating in the debate over the Bill, Derek said, “We are against forceful acquisition of land.” Farmers have skills to directly negotiate with the industry about land deals, he said, adding that the Trinamool is in favour of complete acquisition of land by industry.
However, when he raised the Nandigarm firing incident on March 14, 2007 and lauded West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for spearheading the farmers’ agitation against land acquisition, the CPI(M) members objected terming it incorrect. Verbal duel between them could be heard with Derek contesting their claim saying that “truth is hard to digest”.
For his part, SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav supported the Bill but said that there are many lacunae which needed to be rectified through several amendments.
He said there is an apprehension that farmers will not be adequately compensated. He also feared that development work will come to a halt after the Bill is passed.
Expressing apprehensions over the misuse of special economic zones, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said examples of such misuse was rife near Delhi. He asked the Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh whether the Bill has provisions to prevent misuse of that farmer’s land. He also raised questions over the problems of not acquiring multi-crop irrigated land.
CPM’s Sitaram Yechury demanded that the earlier owners of the land acquired should also get share of the increased land price after he or she is given compensation, at least, in terms of fixed compensation.
“Power of urgency should not be invoked for private purposes,” he said, adding, “Had these kind of laws were there before, Singur or Nandigram would never have happened. We are talking with a certain degree of experience,”
BSP chief Mayawati termed the Bill as half-baked and made in a hurry with an eye on lok Sabha polls in 2014.
Criticising the Centre and States for trying to woo the corporates by giving them more land than they need, she said, “This is the reasons why land acquisition has became complicated. Any decision of the Government meant for public good is usually accepted by the people even if there is a delay. But if public good is not the aim, then there are violent protests, damage to public and private property. It also becomes a law and order issue.”
She sought to know about those stretches of land which are lying unused even after it was given to corporates.
She cited that land is the prime asset of the SC/ST population but their land is being increasingly taken away due to which they are suffering.