Congress slams Mayawati over land policy

Digvijay Singh said that the compensation announced should be equally given to all farmers and labourers.

New Delhi: Taking a dig at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati over an improvised land acquisition policy, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said that the compensation announced should be equally given to all farmers and labourers.

Speaking to media persons here on Friday, Singh said labourers who do not have land should also be considered at par with the farmers.

"The things which are lacking are about the arrangement made for the farmers and labourers without land is that for labourers it is only applicable for 625 days for their minimum wage, where as annuity which they are giving to the farmers are for 33 years, so we propose that the labourers who are without land including both men and women along with their children should also be given minimum wage till 33 years according to 365 days," he said.

After a prolonged farmers` agitation over forced acquisition of their lands, Mayawati on Thursday finally met the protesting groups and announced a new policy on land acquisition.

According to the new policy, private companies would now acquire land directly from farmers, with the state government acting only as a facilitator.

It also stated that land acquisition would only happen if 70 percent of the farmers in a given area agree to give their land, and in case there is disagreement the project would be reviewed.

But Mayawati clarified that the new policy would not affect land acquisition in the restive village of Bhatta-Parsaul and other areas where land has already been acquired and compensation distributed to farmers.

Disagreeing with the fact, Singh said cases of past five years should also be considered in the policy.

"It is not clear that if 70 percent of people agree to give their land and rest 30 percent do not agree, then in that case land will be acquired but at what rate that is not mentioned. If it will be done on circle rate then there is no point. They should buy it at a market rate," he said.

"The important thing is that this strategy is prospective that means in all the places where agitation is going, people of Bhatta Parsaul would not be benefited from this that is why we want that the limitation of this policy should also include the cases of past five years," he added.

The other features of the land acquisition policy include handing over of 16 percent of developed land to the farmers. Also, in the affected villages where land has been acquired, the developer would have to construct a ``Kisan Bhavan`` as well as a school.

ANI

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