Land Bill: BJP slams 'conspiracy to hide truth'

NEW DELHI: The BJP today claimed that a misinformation campaign was being conducted against its Land Acquisition Bill by certain vested interests which the party said it would not allow to succeed.

The party also said it has always worked for farmers' interests and would protect their rights.

"The campaign against land acquisition Bill is fading away on its own and the conspiracy to hide the truth is being exposed. We protect the rights and interests of farmers, we will not allow such campaigns to succeed," Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, said today.

Naqvi's comments came in the wake of an RTI reply by the government which suggested that land acquisition issues figured in only 8 per cent of the stalled projects.

The RTI query was made by activist Venkatesh Nayak. He said that in the reply, the government stated that there are 804 stalled projects, an analysis of which shows that lack of funds is the No.4 reason and land acquisition the No.5 cause for projects being halted.

"The focus of the RTI query was to find out what projects have been stalled as it was reported in the economic survey that was presented in Parliament a day before the budget (that there are) about 800 stalled projects. The data revealed that only 66 projects had been stalled primarily due to land acquisition problems," Nayak said.