BJP ministers today came to the rescue of Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde when a united opposition tried to corner him over the process of land acquisition for the Samruddhi corridor in the Legislative Council.
Raising the issue, Congress MLC Sanjay Dutt claimed that clauses of the Land Acquisition Act of 2013 were not followed while acquiring the land for Mumbai-Nagpur expressway.
He said that while the state government should have, according to the Act given five times the compensation for land according to the prevailing market rate, the current Ready Reckoner rates were used as the base for providing compensation.
Senior NCP leader Sunil Tatkare said that while it was mandatory to take consent of farmers before acquiring their fertile land, there were instances when the cultivators were forced to part with their lands.
"There have been cases where dissenting farmers and their families were threatened by police to give consent to sell their lands or face consequences," he said.
Rahul Narvekar (NCP) said that even the mandatory rule of taking consensus of atleast 75 per cent members of the gram panchayats was not followed.
In an attempt to pacify the Opposition members, Shinde said that the government's and his party's stand over the issue remains unchanged.
"The project will be allowed to go ahead only if farmers willingly give their consent," he said.
"The government is providing them compensation 25 per cent higher than what is mandatory in the Land Acquisition Act of 2013," he added.
Unsatisfied with the response, the Opposition members insisted that the Calling Attention motion be kept pending.
BJP minister and Leader of the House Chandrakant Patil then said there was no need to do so as the Shinde was prepared with all answers and had all facts and figures with him.
"When the minister has said the project will not go ahead till farmers are satisfied, all apprehensions should end there," he said.
Backing Patil's contention, BJP Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Girish Bapat and Minister for Education Vinod Tawde too said that Shinde has addressed all apprehensions of the Opposition members and that the calling attention motion should not be withheld.
However, amid protests by Opposition members, the Chair withheld the Calling Attention motion.
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