Land bill letter war: Gadkari blasts Sonia on UPA policies

Transport minister replies to Sonia’s letter and says UPA law was against farmers

GN Bureau | March 31, 2015


#Sonia Gandhi   #Nitin Gadkari   #land acquisition bill   #UPA   #Modi   #Anna Hazare  

The letter war on land acquisition law has taken an ugly turn with transport minister Nitin Gadkari accusing Congress president Sonia Gandhi of misleading the country. Responding to her rebuttal, Gadkari in a fresh letter addressed to the Congress chief has alleged that the UPA government's policies had resulted in unemployment and farmers' suicides.

Two weeks back Gadkari had written letters to Sonia Gandhi and Anna Hazare on the government’s viewpoints on the land bill and sought their support. But Sonia had slammed the land bill as an "unabashed display of half-truths" and told the government to bring back the law passed by the UPA.

However, Gadkari’s new letter charges that UPA's land acquisition law gave exemptions for carrying out social impact study for certain Acts and that would help mass acquisition of land by influential people and business houses. Gadkari has said that not a single acre has been acquired under the new law even for irrigation, power transmission lines etc, which are critical for country's development.

"Under your land law, the government and private firms, which are allocated coal blocks, can acquire thousands of acres of land without doing social impact assessment, but states would have to go through this complex exercise if they need one acre of land for a school or hospital and rural road. Will it be proper?" Gadkari wrote.

Responding to a four-page letter of Sonia Gandhi, the transport minister claimed that because of the faulty law the farmers remained dependent on rains all the time.

 In her letter to Gadkari, the Congress chief had rejected his offer for a dialogue, saying it was a mockery as the BJP regime had unilaterally imposed the land ordinance.

"I urge you to rise above the realm of narrow partisan politics and bring back the 2013 law in totality," Sonia Gandhi had written in her letter. Sonia said that "your proposed legislation makes a mockery of your claim that you stand for interest of farmers".

"Your government is blatantly anti-farmer and anti-poor," Sonia Gandhi said.

She said the fundamental difference between the Congress and the BJP is in understanding farmer's distress and loss of livelihood by acquisition of land without safeguards.

Being pro-farmer does not mean anti-growth, she said.

The Modi government had on March 19 reached out to leaders of opposition parties, including Sonia Gandhi, and activist Anna Hazare inviting them to an open debate on the issue while asserting that the bill was "very much in farmers' interest".

Gadkari’s March 19 letter said the government was willing to debate all aspects of the bill which is awaiting clearance in the Rajya Sabha.

A united and aggressive opposition, led by the Congress, is blocking the bill's passage in Rajya Sabha and submitted a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee earlier this week, terming the land bill as "anti-farmer".

Gadkari, while claiming that the opposition parties were criticising the bill for "political reasons", invited all leaders of major parties as well as Hazare for an open debate on any platform to discuss the nuances of the bill.

"The Narendra Modi-led BJP government has brought significant amendments to the land acquisition bill keeping the interest of farmers and rural development in mind. But some parties and organisations are opposing this bill for political reasons.

"No compromise has been made in the bill with the compensation provisions for land owners. No provision of the bill is anti-farmer... In fact, the bill will bring prosperity to villages and farmers and we are ready to debate the bill on any forum," he said in his letter.

Comments

 

Other News

“I wrote ‘Survival at Stake’ to provide food for thought about solutions”

Survival at Stake: How Our Treatment of Animals Is Key to Human Existence By Poorva Joshipura HarperCollins, 328 pages, Rs 499 With science now recognising animal consciousness, intelligence, emotion, and even morality, there must rise an awareness of

‘Bon Voyage’ through the Arctic: Exploring new horizons for India

India`s tryst with trade through the Arctic regions, including the Northern Sea Routes (NSR), has become an impact-making endeavor recently. The Arctic of yore is now a pivot – point of geopolitics, of climate change discussions, and for economic opportunities; 40% of oil and gas reserves said to be

Demystifying Contemporary Finance Theory and other lessons in investment

Investing Decoded: Simple Path To Building A Portfolio In Millions By Anirudh Rathore Penguin India, 320 pages, Rs 499

Deepfake: India to prepare four-point action plan

Deepfake has emerged as a serious threat to democracy and social institutions across the world. Propagation of deepfake content via social media platforms has aggravated this challenge. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has, from time to time, advised social media in

Mumbai traffic: Let’s use some simple math

Two level of roads not enough, BMC to have triple traffic jams through underground junctions There is no shortage of short-sighted traffic experts who believe that creating more vertical space (either above or below the level) in already overcrowded and congested cities will be cou

Seizures worth Rs. 1,760 crore reported in five poll-bound states

The Election Commission of India’s persistent efforts have led to a significant and exponential increase in seizures in the five poll-going states of Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana. Seizures over Rs 1,760 crore have been reported in these five states since the announce

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter