Khattar back land acquisition bill : Sanjay Chaturvedi

The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Lal,
has strongly defended the Ordinance promulgated by the Central
Government on land acquisition, saying that it would only bring the
farmers prosperity and happiness and lead to development of the
country and asked people not to allow themselves to be carried away by
the false and misleading propaganda unleashed by some vested interests
against the Ordinance.

In a statement issued Chandigarh today, the Chief Minister said, “We have to take forward the state by rising above partisan politics. I urge
all to openly support the provisions made in favour of the farmers in
the Ordinance.”

Lending substance to his statement, he dissected all the provisions
incorporated in the Ordinance to substantiate the theory that these
would only protect the interests of the farmers as well as of the land
owners. “We need to understand that land would have to be acquired for
providing drinking water facilities in villages, housing facility to
the homeless poor and developing infrastructure for setting up
industry”, he said.

Provision has been made in the Ordinance that enhanced compensation would also be paid under 13 different Central Acts, including the Railway Act 1989, Power Act, 2003, Land Acquisition Mining Act 1885,
Damodar Valley Corporation Act, 1948 etc under which land was acquired
separately and less compensation was paid. This means that the
solatium money of farmers and land owners would be increased from 30
per cent to 100 per cent. “This decision is in the favour of the
farmers and land owners”, he pointed out.

The second important provision made in this Ordinance has it that the
Government of India can issue orders for up to five years instead of
two years, to do away with practical difficulties in implementation of
provisions of the Act under Section 113 of Act, 2013. “This provision
would help in getting decision in favour of the farmers and land
owners”, Mr Manohar Lal contended.

Under another provision, governments have been authorized to acquire land for such projects as involve national interest like defence projects, etc. with the stipulation that the farmers and land owners should get full compensation in such acquisitions. If anyone says that
compensation would be low he is making misleading propaganda, the
Chief Minister said.

“I am shocked that some self-proclaimed leaders have been creating
misleading propaganda regarding this ordinance. Similar changes in the Act of 2013 and the draft rules notified for inviting objections by the Government of India and now introduced in the Ordinance had been demanded by the then Congress-ruled states be it the Bhupinder Singh Hooda Government in Haryana and Mr. Prithviraj Chavan’s Government in Maharashtra and other Congress ruled state. The Haryana Government too, when Mr Hooda was the Chief Minister, demanded amendments through written communications and by sending officers in the meetings of Central Government”, he added.