Mamata veto seen withholding solution

NEW DELHI: Farmers’ unrest in Uttar Pradesh has brought the focus back on the land acquisition amendment bill.

Political parties across the aisle on Tuesday warned the government that a failure to put in place a mechanism for striking a balance between land holders’ rights and acquisition of land for public purposes could aggravate problems in rural India. However , the ‘veto power’ Union railway minister Mamata Banerjee holds in the UPA government is certain to frustrate any attempts to put it on the frontburner.

While speaking on the farmers’ agitation in the Lok Sabha, JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav said the government should immediately reintroduce the land acquisition bill. The bill was introduced in the last Parliament session, but there was not enough time to get it through after the standing committee gave its report.

Outside Parliament, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari backed this demand of the JD(U) leader. “What we are submitting before the government is that the land acquisition amendment bill and the accompanying resettlement and rehabilitation bill which were passed by the Lok Sabha on February 25, 2009, but which lapsed subsequently be reintroduced in its original form or in an amended version as early as possible,” Mr Tewari said. On Monday, BJP’s Gopinath Munde, too, had made a similar demand.

But Ms Mamata Banerjee is certain to raise the banner of revolt if any step is made in this direction. It was Ms Banerjee’s stiff opposition that forced the Cabinet to take it off the priority list. She has been maintaining her fight against land acquisition at Singur and Nandigram was an important factor that aided her party’s impressive performance in the last Lok Sabha polls.

The Trinamool Congress chief is opposed to any state role in land acquisition for the industry. She has been arguing that in states like West Bengal, with fragmented land holdings, problems could crop up in land acquisition bids.
“The government cannot afford to annoy the railway minister. And there is little likelihood of the government re-introducing the bill before the West Bengal assembly polls,” said a Union minister.