Mamata stalls LS, wants land Act scrapped

Even as the second session of Parliament comes to a premature end this week, Mamata Banerjee, the lone Trinamool Congress member in the Lok Sabha, forced an adjournment on the issue of land acquisition for industries and special economic zones (SEZs).

Raising the issue, she soon managed to raise tempers in the Left ranks, but found support from the Congress benches.

Banerjee, who attended the House for the first time after the violent events in Singur and Nandigram over land acquisition for industrial projects, demanded that the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, be repealed or amended.

"It is a draconian law and state governments have been using it with impunity to acquire land for industrial houses while arm-twisting farmers into selling land at low prices," she said.

Trouble started when she started waving 400 affidavits by farmers in Singur saying they had been forced to sell land by the CPI(M)-led government.

She accused the state government of killing and torturing farmers and being responsible for the violence in the area. "I appeal to you (Sonia Gandhi) and the prime minister to visit Singur and see for yourself," she said, amid loud protests by the CPI(M) benches.

"A lot of issues pertaining to the poor, low castes, women and children are raised in the House, why not the matter of farmers being killed and maimed in the name of development," she said.

"I demand that the Land Acquisition Act be repealed and the SEZ policy scrapped," she said.

There was loud opposition from the Left benches over references to the state government. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, failing to restore order, adjourned the House for an hour.

Meanwhile, terming the UPA government "incompetent and directionless," its ally, the CPI, today accused the Congress of joining hands with the BJP to adjourn Parliament sine die a week before scheduled.

"I am sorry that we (the Left) have to support this government," senior party leader Gurudas Dasgupta told reporters here, claiming that he had "come to know" that Parliament would be adjourned "tomorrow or day after" due to want of government business.

"In the past 20 years that I have been in Parliament, I have never heard the government saying it has no business, especially after announcing that the Budget session will go on till May 22," said Dasgupta.