RELATED KEYWORDS: Sonia-Gandhi|Land-Bill|Kisan-Mahasangh|Jairam-Ramesh|Indian-Farmers Farmers’ body demands govt’s hands-off policy in land acquisition Dipak K Dash, TNN | Oct 21, 2012, 05.01AM IST NEW DELHI: Farmers, who often lose their land to pave way for development, are not happy, with even UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhis proposal of 80% landowners consent for fresh acquisition for any private project. They want governments non-interference in land acquisition, and feel that all deals should be done directly between buyers and sellers. Kisan Mahasangh, an umbrella body of farmers organizations in north India, put these demands and several others before Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Saturday. The meeting, which lasted around three hours, took place a day after farmers had staged a protest against government on the proposed bill cleared by the group of ministers (GoM), headed by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. Farmers representatives submitted that land acquisition for private firms across the world has been stopped due to the inherent potential for exploitation. They said that the parliamentary committee had recognized this flaw in the acquisition process, and had suggested an end to the practice. We are opposed to the proposal of creation of pool of unutilized land since this leads to misuse, allotments and leasing of excess land to individuals and companies based on vested interest. It encourages acquisition of large tracts at lower rates. Since developments on such plots take long and that too in phases, they cannot be used for farming and the land owners are also deprived of compensation at market rate, said Colonel (retd) Devinder Sehrawat, co-convener of Kisan Mahasangh. The farmers have also demanded that there should be a professional outfit to calculate the compensation rate with their representatives. The minister has agreed that he would push for such bodies at state level with some members from the farmers community, Sehrawat said. The representatives have also pushed for keeping fertile and irrigated land out of acquisition ambit. In addition, they want government to issue individual notices to the affected landowners.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 04:51:48 +0000
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