BJP national general secretary and national convener of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mahasampark Abhiyaan, Bhupendra Yadav on Monday said that Congress party has launched a ‘misinformation campaign’ against the Ordinance brought by the party to eliminate the shortcomings in the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (Amendment) Act, 2013.
“The Ordinance is aimed at providing financial inclusion and housing for poor for generating employment opportunity for unemployed youth, for providing power supply to every household and internal and external security,” he said while addressing a joint Press conference with Chief Minister Raman Singh and BJP national general secretary Saroj Pandey here.
He said that it is for the first time that the Centre has constituted provision of District Monitoring Fund under Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation and Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 in order to ensure development of rural areas.
The Bharatiya Janata Party will continue to follow its agenda of development despite all opposition, Yadav said. Yadav said the compensation provisions in the 1894 Act were highly inadequate and, therefore, it was desirable that higher compensation coupled with a rehabilitation and resettlement package be provided.
However, thirteen Acts of Parliament, which provided for land acquisition, were put in the Fourth Schedule of the Act. Section 105 of the 2013 Act made the provisions of the Act inapplicable to these exempted Acts, he said. The Government decided to amend the Section 105 and apply all the compensation and R&R provisions of the 2013 Act to the thirteen exempted laws. Through this provision the present ordinance provides that the farmers would get higher compensation if land is acquired under any of the exempted laws, Yadav said.
The 2013 Act provided for consent of the land owner in varying percentages in a number of cases. It is only when the land owners give consent that their land be acquired and the Government can initiate the acquisition process. Yadav said land is required for housing, townships, urbanisation, sub-urbanisation, industrialisation, infrastructure, both urban and rural, irrigation and defence of India.