Land bill draconian, Opposition should defeat it in RS: PMK

Slamming the land acquisition bill as "draconian", NDA constituent PMK today called for opposition unity to defeat it in the Rajya Sabha.

Party founder S Ramadoss said the amendments proposed by the central government were in "no way advantageous to the farmers", and claimed that it would further add to their woes.

"The government is determined to pass this draconian bill in the face of stiff opposition. This is testimony to the central government's anti-farmer position," he said.

Ramadoss, who has been critical of the Centre on various issues, alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley "with the intention to deceive the nation, are doing a false propaganda that it will help improve the lives of farmers".

While Modi had stated that industries would come up in rural areas aimed at improving lives of the locals, "Jaitley is claiming" that it will usher in 30 crore jobs, he said.

"How can this be possible? The Prime Minister and Finance Minister who assure that the bill will bring spring in farmers' lives have not given a roadmap to achieve this. This proves that they are hollow promises," he said in a statement.

Ramadoss said that if Modi can assure that families of farmers parting with land would be given "jobs and shares" of the company, "then we can welcome his intentions".

The government had recently stated that over 40% of land acquired for Special Economic Zones had remained untilised for over five years, he said, adding these tracts of land could be used for building new industries.

If further land was acquired for industries they also may remain unutilised and the new bill would only help to acquire lands of farmers at very low costs and transfer them to corporates, "who will use them for real estate purposes and make crores of money," he said.

"This seems to be the wish of the central government and corporates. They appear to achieve this purpose only," he said, adding farmers would be severely affected if the bill was passed.

"Since the passing of the bill in Lok Sabha appears certain, the opposition should unite and ensure that the bill is defeated in the Rajya Sabha.

"Particularly the MPs of Tamil Nadu from AIADMK, DMK, Congress, Left and the nominated members should vote against the bill in Rajya Sabha," he said.

All democratic efforts should be made to defeat the land bill if the NDA tried to pass it through a Joint Session of Parliament, he added.