Farmers group slams Modi over Land Bill assurances

Condemning the "callous" attitude of Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards protests against the Land Acquisition Bill, a CPI(M) affiliated farmers' body today accused him of indulging in an exercise of "lies and deceit" to ensure smooth take-over of productive land for corporates.
Observing that the Prime Minister, through his 'Mann Ki Baat' projected a "distorted" picture on the amendments of the Act by "twisting facts", All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) accused the government of trying to "arrogate" to itself the right to decide what is "good" for the people without taking their opinion or having a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) done.

"A Government which has miserably failed to provide relief to farmers reeling under crop loss in vast areas of India is now making a callous promise that farmers will get a 'good' price for land.
"...The Prime Minister is indulging in an exercise of lies, deceit and demagogy to ensure smooth take-over of productive land for corporate profiteering and real estate speculation," AIKS president Amra Ram and general secretary Hannan Mollah said in a joint statement.
Mollah said the government has in effect reinstated the "most draconian" provisions of the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894 and removed the necessity to seek consent of the farmers and other dependants on land while doing away with the Social Impact Assessment altogether.

"There will be no safeguards for food security as even fertile multi-cropped land as well as productive rain-fed land can be acquired without any restriction," the statement said.
The body said that a meeting with different political parties has been fixed for April 2 and it has been decided to carry forward this unity of mass and class organisations against all instances of indiscriminate land acquisition and for land rights.
"Over all this is the fact that the government is trying to arrogate to itself the right to decide what is good for the people without taking their opinion or consent or having a Social Impact Assessment. This is unacceptable," the statement said.