Bhatta-Parsaul: Cong launches campaign against dilution of land acquisition act

The Congress on Wednesday returned to Bhatta-Parsaul, the twin villages in western Uttar Pradesh which grabbed  headlines after Rahul Gandhi lent his support to a farmers’ agitation in 2011, to launch its campaign against “dilution” of the land acquisition Act enacted by the UPA government. Joining the protest against the Centre’s move to bring an Ordinance to amend the Act, former rural development minister Jairam Ramesh addressed a farmers’ meeting at one of the villages, a day after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) gave its approval to a decision to hold a nationwide stir against the BJP government’s decision. “The Congress-led UPA government had given the farmers rights to their land, but the BJP regime has been reversing the measures. Our law had said the acquired land would be given back to their owners if it remains unused for five years. But the BJP government has done away with it… They believe in ‘ghar wapsi’ not ‘zameen wapsi’,” he said.