A bill seeking to empower the West Bengal government to return land in Singur to farmers was today passed by the Assembly amidst a walkout by members of the Opposition Left parties.
The Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill, 2011, was passed by voice vote along with some amendments brought by the government.
When the Bill was put to vote by Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay, the Left MLAs, who cited legal loopholes in the legislation, walked out of the House.
Speaking on the Bill, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it had been brought to undo the injustice meted out to the farmers whose land was forcefully acquired in 2006 for setting up Tata Motor's Nano car manufacturing unit.
She said her government did not want to divide the 'willing' and 'unwilling' farmers, but the situation had forced them to resort to the measure. Banerjee said the land could be returned if the farmers were willing to get it back.
Stating that the Left members could raise the issue of technicalities in the Bill, she charged that they could not carry out the exercise of returning the land during their tenure.
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Banerjee also said she wanted to know from the Left members why they were losing patience so soon.
Queried whether he considered BJP a corrupt party, he evaded direct reply and said, "why should I say, you people know."
On Congress' allegation that the civil society was undermining democracy, he said the civil society has become the masters of the country when it turned republic.
Emphasising that the government has to listen to people's opinion, he said there was nothing wrong in civil society highlighting issues as the government is a representative of the citizens and are answerable.
"We do not deny that Parliament is a big institution. But Parliament is not in Delhi alone. Have a look at the Constitution. The village parliament is bigger than the Parliament in Delhi. Nobody thinks about it. Who has send them to Parliament?" he said.
Hazare also said there is so much corruption. "People in the government act like kings. Thats why people should reflect on Congress leader Digvijay Singh said about bringing Prime Minister under the ambit of the Lok Pal Bill. It is noy just Anna Hazare's question," he said.
Asked why they were not pulling out the drafting commitee as there was so much of mistrust, Kejriwal said they have to work with this. "At least, we can put on record our dissent note," he said.