Home » Finance News » No forceful land acquisition for rlys: Mamata
No forceful land acquisition for rlys: Mamata
NEW DELHI: Opposing the current land acquisition
practice is not just rhetoric for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. To bring her ministry in line with her political position on the issue, it has been decided that there would be no forceful acquisition of land for railways. She has also promised to undertake a comprehensive review of the railways' land acquisition policy.
Ms Banerjee's reiteration of her position comes on the heels of the assertion by rural development minister C P Joshi that the Cabinet had cleared the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill on July 24, and Parliament was in session till August 7. Mr Joshi has also said parliamentary affairs minister would decide when to introduce the Bill in Parliament.
The move to ground all "forceful acquisition of land" by the railways, to some measure, constrains hands while dealing with Ms Banerjee's objections to the amendments. Opposition to land acquisition has catapulted Ms Banerjee from being a marginal player to becoming the face of a credible opposition to the Left Front in West Bengal . With elections in West Bengal due in 2011, Ms Banerjee can't afford to be seen as abandoning or diluting her position on land-related issues.
Her move to bring railways' land acquisition policy under review is also an attempt to pre-empt any accusation of double standards. The review would look at ways to facilitate all transactions, purchase and acquisition of land directly from the land owner with complete transparency. As part of this effort, all existing land acquisition cases will be examined within a month. This is Ms Banerjee's way of reminding her core electorate that she and her party have not given up on the land issue. And that she would translate her political position into action as and when she gets the opportunity.
The Trinamool chief had expressed reservations to the Bill and threatened to walk out of the Cabinet meeting considering it. Ms Banerjee succeeded in putting the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill on the backburner. Ms Banerjee, however, is in no mood to give up on her core issue. "My party is the largest ally of Congress, we are the second largest component of the UPA. I am sure that Congress will not overlook my objections to the Bill," she said.
Illustrating the influence of the Trinamool Congress , the railway minister said: "The fact that a Bill which is said to have been cleared by the Cabinet has not been introduced in Parliament should be inference enough of the government's thinking."
