By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 6, 2015 :

Former union minister and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday said his party wanted complete restoration of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR Act 2013) and urged regional parties, including the ruling BJD in Odisha, to defeat the NDA government Land Acquisition Bill 2015 in Rajya Sabha.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Ramesh said the Congress was opposed to the Narendra Modi government’s Land Acquisition Bill-2015 “as it empowers the government to acquire land without the permission of the land owners and farmers.”

“The Land Acquisition Act 2013 law says that land acquisition cannot be allowed without the permission of the land owners and farmers. This provision is done away in the 2015 Land Bill. Secondly, the 2013 law provided for social impact assessment which is clearly missing in the new law,” Mr Ramesh remarked.

The Congress leader further added that while the 2013 law provided return of acquired land lying idle for five years to the original owner, such provision is conspicuous by its absence in the new law.

Besides, the new law also provides that land could be acquired on both the sides of industrial corridor which means builders and real estate developers could acquire farmers’ land easily, he observed.

“The most important thing is that while the LAAR Act 2013 provided four times compensation for the land acquired under the Land Acquisition Act 1894, the new law is silent on it,” Mr Ramesh said.

Stating that entire design of the new land law was to grab land from the farmers, the veteran Congress leader said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was behaving like Duryodhan of the Mahabharat era.

“Narendra Modi is behaving like Duryodhan. He is refusing the farmers, who are Pandavs, their sole rights on the lands. Modi is enacting the 21st century Mahabharat and we will defeat him in this Mahabharat. We will oppose his Land Acquisition Bill 2015 in Rajya Sabha. I will appeal the Biju Janata Dal [BJD] and its leader Naveen Patnaik to abandon the army of Kauravs and join the army of Pandavs,” he said.

Stating that Samajwadi Party, Trinamul Congress, DMK, BSP and many other parties were totally opposed to the Modi government’s Land Bill, Mr Ramesh said good sense will prevail the BJD and the party would prevent the passing of the Bill in Rajya Sabha.