Seminar against The Land Acquisition Ordinance 2015

Seminar opposed the govt conspiracy 

Ludhiana: 9 May 2015:(Punjab Screen Bureau):
The Land Acquisition Ordinance 2015 is a devious move of the BJP government to grab the land of the farmers in the name of development completely diluting the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act 2013. This ordinance completely ignores the provisions of the previous act whereby the farmers were taken into confidence before acquiring their land for the matters of public interest. This was said by Com Bhupinder Sambar - General Secretary Punjab Kissan Sabha while addressing seminar organized by the Social thinkers Forum and Lok Sahit Manch Ludhiana at Punjabi Bhawan here today.  
It was after long drawn struggle, he said,  that in 2013 the infamous clauses of the Land Acquisition Act 1894 of the British government was amended. According to this Land Acquisition would not be permitted in the fertile multi crop and irrigated land as it could jeopardize country’s food security. Moreover reasonable compensation was to be paid to the land owners in advance. Only a minimum required land for any project should be acquired  and if the land remains utilized this should be returned to the original owner as per the 2013 Act. Moreover possession of the land would be taken only after full compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement of the affected families has been completed. In addition social impact assessment was to be made before acquiring the land. Com Sambar further cautioned that the present Ordinance dilutes the Act of 2013 to the extent that most of these features just diminish and the ordinance is as tyrannical as the act of 1894. This Ordinance completely ignores the clauses on consent social impact assessment. This also allows acquisition of multi crop irrigates fertile land. The ordinance and acquisition without going into social impact will be a big threat to our biodiversity as the corporate houses will ruin our eco system in the name of development to benefit them. This ordinance is aimed at facilitating acquisition of the land for private companies and land mafia.

He elaborated that out 85000 hectares acquired in Maharashtra, 15000 Hectare is lying idle. In Madhya Pradesh out of 45000 hectare  21000 is lying unutilised. Similar is the situation in many other states. Even the CAG has pointed out that this ordinance amounts to major transfer of wealth from the rural population the corporate world.

Dr Arun Mitra Convener of the Social thinkers’ Forum said that as per some analysis the government’s move to acquire one kilometer land on each side of the railway tracks and the roads will lead to 36% of the cultivable land be taken over leading to crisis of food security in our predominantly agricultural country and uprooting of 28 crore of people.

In the end in his vote of thanks Adv. Mitter Sain Meet, General Secreaty- Lok Sahit Manch thanked the main speaker and the others who enriched the discussion with their valuable ideas. He said that the NDA government, in its drive to snatch the land from the farmers, issued the ordinance to amend the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement(Amendment) Act 2013. This procedure is totally undemocratic. The others who participated in the discussion include Com D P Maur, Dr. Rajinder Pal Singh Aulakh, Mrs. Gurcharan Kaur Kocher, President-Punjab Istri Sabha Ludhiana, Com. Ramesh Rattan, Com. Gurnam Singh Gill, Com. Charan Sarabha, Gurnam Sidhu.