By IANS,
New Delhi : Amid the raging unrest over land acquisition in parts of Uttar Pradesh, the government Thursday said it would bring in a new land acquisition law for better compensation and rehabilitation of farmers in the next session of parliament.
The new legislation, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said, would be introduced in parliament likely in July. But he did “not rule out” the possibility of an ordinance laying out the new land acquisition rules till then.
Chidambaram said the government had earlier drafted the law but failed to build political consensus on the issue, which is why the bill could not be tabled in parliament.
“We must have a new land acquisition act. Consensus building took some time,” he told reporters after the meeting of the newly constituted Group of Ministers (GoM) to communicate the government’s policies and decisions to the public through the media.
Chidambaram heads the panel that was formed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to brief the media to counter the bad press government may face on occasions. Other members of the panel are union ministers Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khursheed, Pawan Bansal and V. Narayanasamy.
The home minister said the government had made some amendments to the land acquisition draft bill.
“Now we are at a point when there is a fair degree of certainty that there is a consensus on the law with some amendments. It is the government’s intention to introduce that law in the next session.”
He said the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh “is not a very happy situation”.
His comments came as clashes between police and farmers led by political activists continued Thursday, a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was arrested for staging a sit-in in support of the farmers and then released.
He criticised the way Chief Minister Mayawati handled the farmer protests in Bhatta Parsaul in Greater Noida near the national capital.
But he ruled out sending a central team to examine the situation. “Many villagers, farmers are protesting on the issue of acquisition of land and compensation. Political parties are espousing the cause of farmers and some lives have been lost, that is distressing.”
Violence on the issue of farmers demanding higher compensation for their land led to escalated clashes in Greater Noida area leading to four people being killed – three on Saturday and one on Sunday.
Chidambaram expressed the “hope that the Uttar Pradesh government will heed to reason and respond to the just demands of the people”.
On Rahul Gandhi spending a day in Bhatta Parsaul Wedneday, Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed lashed out at Mayawati over the way the protests were handled by the state government.
“Very clearly whatever he (Rahul) did was entirely right because as a member of parliament from Uttar Pradesh and as a leader, he has every right to be there. He just wanted to spend the night there. There was no need to interfere with it.
“He has every right to express his concerns for farmers and now it is more than evident that the people of Uttar Pradesh are extremely unhappy over the manner in which the matter is being dealt with,” Khursheed said.
He said Mayawati was “jittery and losing sleep” because Gandhi was getting tremendous support and respect both inside and outside the Congress party.