TN parties slam Centre over Land Acquisition Ordinance

CHENNAI: The BJP-led government at the Centre today faced flak from Tamil Nadu political parties including ally PMK over the ordinance to amend Land Acquisition Act.

PMK founder S Ramadoss slammed the 'back door entry' by the NDA government, saying it will affect crores of farmers in the country.

Contrary to acting on promises made during elections like bringing back black money or addressing other issues affecting common people, the Narendra Modi government was 'desperate' to implement "hidden promises" to corporates and the repeated instances of ordinances including the one for increasing FDI cap in insurance was a result of this, he said.

He denied government claim that farmers will not be affected due to the changes, which include removing the consent clause and the Social Impact Assessment.

"Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the rules had been relaxed only for acquiring land for five areas of industrial corridors, PPP projects, rural infrastructure, affordable housing and defence. It is a fact that 99 per cent of the land is acquired only for these," Ramadoss said in a statement here.

He said that except for Defence and Rural infrastructure, private players could enter and play a vital role and indicated that this was the reason behind the ordinance.

Holding that one third of the people were dependent on agriculture, Ramadoss wondered how could there be industrial development at the cost of agriculture and demanded that the government withdrew its proposal.

MDMK founder Vaiko slammed the BJP government, saying it had opposed the Congress' Land Acquisition Act while being in opposition.

He said that the intention was to acquire land for corporates for Modi's ambitious 'Make in India' scheme and condemned the move.

He urged that President Pranab Mukherji should not grant his approval to the ordinance.

VCK founder Thol Thirumavalavan also slammed the ordinance.