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Ramesh smells BJP-BJD deal over bills

Last week, the Union government re-promulgated the Land ordinance as it failed to get the land bill passed in the Rajya Sabha during the recently concluded first leg of the Budget session

Jairam Ramesh
BS Reporter Bhubaneswar
Last Updated : Apr 06 2015 | 9:58 PM IST
Senior Congress leader and former minister Jairam Ramesh today accused the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha of entering into a secret pact with the BJP under which it is supporting various controversial bills of the Centre in exchange for soft pedalling of investigation into chit fund scam in the state by CBI.

"I suspect a deal between the BJP and BJD. There may be a co-relation between BJD supporting the bills like land bill, coal bill and mines bill and the Centre soft pedalling investigation into chit fund scam in the state," he said.

Reiterating his party's determination to oppose the amended land acquisition bill within and outside the parliament, Ramesh said, the Congress is in touch with 14 other parties like Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal (United), Nationalist Congress Party, Communist Party of India (CPI) over the issue.

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He said, "We are not depending on Naveen Patnaik's support to defeat the bill, but here is an opportunity for him to support the farmers."

He, nonetheless, appealed to BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik not to support the land acquisition bill in the parliament in its amended form.

"I appeal the BJD not to support the bill to be introduced in the parliament. I hope BJD will uphold the interest of farmers, tribals and democracy. The BJP government has no majority in Rajya Sabha to get the bill passed," Ramesh told media persons.

Last week, the Union government re-promulgated the Land ordinance as it failed to get the land bill passed in the Rajya Sabha during the recently concluded first leg of the Budget session.

Ramesh said, the land acquisition bill, which took more than two years by the UPA government to formulate, has been overturned in just two months. He accused the ruling BJP of amending the law to benefit a few private parties.

He cited five major changes brought in the original bill by the NDA government, which would undermine the interests of the farmers. He said, the amendments proposed in the bill would do away with clauses in the 2013 act, such as requirement of consent of 80 per cent of farmers, social impact assessment and giving back the land lying unutilized for five years to the farmers.

He also complained that another amendment proposing acquisition of land stretching upto one kilometer on both sides of the industrial corridors will benefit the private developers.

Pointing out that the 2013 act had provisions of paying compensation to those land losers, who had not received their compensation for the land acquired under 1984 act, at the rate of four times of the market rate, he said, this provision will now be scrapped following amendment to the bill, which seeks to dilute the retrospective clause.

Calling the amendments anti-farmer and anti-democratic, the senior Congress leader said, the amendments will open up the door for forcible land acquisition.

Ramesh said, even many outfits of Sangh Parivar and coalition partners of BJP, such as Shiv Sena, Akali Dal are not happy with the amendment to 2013 land act. The Congress has planned a Kisan (farmers') rally in New Delhi on April 19 to oppose the amendments to the 2013 act.

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First Published: Apr 06 2015 | 8:17 PM IST

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