Land Ordinance is Anti Farmer, Government Engaging in Propaganda

New Delhi : Several news papers have reported that Central government is rethinking the Land Ordinance before the crucial Budget Session . In a release issued, the National Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM) stated ”  We would like to reiterate that “the Land Ordinance 2014 has to be withdrawn”. There is no question of any compromise on this issue. The Land Ordinance takes away safeguards offered to the farmers and project affected families by removing the key provisions of “consent” and “social impact assessment”.

The government is engaging in false propaganda that the new Land Ordinance is beneficial to farmers and is necessary for the creation of the rural infrastructure like supplying drinking water, electricity and building of the roads and houses for poor people. The evidence suggests otherwise though .

The NAPM further stated that Time and again it has been reported that the Land Ordinance has been brought to provide boost to PM’s flagship programme “Make In India”. It has also been promulgated to remove supposedly billions of dollars investment stuck due to land related problems, None of the State governments or Central government attempted at acquiring land using the 2013 Land Act even then the Land Ordinance was brought in based on false fears of delays and cumbersome nature of land acquisition raised 2013 Act was a result of the consensus developed over a period of nearly 30 years then what has been the urgency to bring in an ordinance without consulting anyone , he extension of the provisions of compensation to 13 other Acts is a good step but compensation was not the only issue at large number of land conflicts.

The provisions of the consent and social impact assessment are the soul of the new Act, without that it goes back to 1894 Act and Land Ordinance will seriously impact the food security of the country, since it will allow acquisition of the multi crop land at a fast pace, the NAPM stated.