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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | PM targets 'lies' in broadcast to farmers -Radhika Ramaseshan

PM targets 'lies' in broadcast to farmers -Radhika Ramaseshan

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published Published on Mar 23, 2015   modified Modified on Mar 23, 2015
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today used his monthly radio broadcast to reach out to farmers and defend the controversial land acquisition bill, asking them not to be misled by the Opposition's "lies".

He denied that his government's intended amendments to the UPA-steered 2013 land law favoured corporate houses and would deprive farmers even of the right to move court against a takeover of their land.

Modi's speech launched the government-BJP campaign to answer the all-round offensive mounted by the Opposition and civil rights groups against the bill, which is stuck in the Rajya Sabha after passage in the Lok Sabha.

More direct interactions at public meetings have now been lined up, the first being a rally that Modi will address in Bangalore on April 3 when the BJP's national executive meets.

During his half-hour Mann ki Baat programme today, the Prime Minister built his case on the twin arguments that development and infrastructure growth in the villages was in the farmers' interest, and that his bill was a step towards this.

Rural and urban youths aspire to the same quality of life and therefore, Modi said, there was nothing wrong in acquiring land for government-owned industrial corridors that would bring jobs.

He assured farmers they would no longer be at the "mercy" of officials' whims because his bill would streamline the acquisition process by junking, in some cases, the social impact assessment (SIA) mandated by the 2013 law.

"Under the garb of the SIA, the acquisition process would continue interminably," the Prime Minister said.

"In such an uncertain situation, the farmers couldn't decide whether they should sow or not. The tangled processes forced the hapless farmer to prostrate themselves before the officers and seek a favourable decision."

The latest bill makes the SIA optional for rural housing and electrification, defence projects, industrial corridors and public-private-partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects. It also waives the requirement for land-losers' consent for industrial corridors and PPP projects, a concession granted only to government projects by the 2013 law.

"I wish to publicly declare that the new bill is not meant to help a private industrialist, entrepreneur or trader," Modi said.

"We have merely retained the 2013 law's provisions for the corporate world - then why are such lies being spread?"

He highlighted the "pro-farmer" nature of the bill's clauses relating to consent, PPP projects and industrial corridors.

"One canard that's circulating is that prior consent is not needed. The 2013 law too says that if land has to be acquired for government schemes, prior consent is not required," Modi said.

"To say that 'Our (UPA's) law was very nice and this (the NDA's) is very bad' is disinformation. I wish to make it absolutely clear that private business, corporate (houses) and private industry have to compulsorily get prior consent."

On the PPP model, he said: "Suppose a road that demands a financial outlay of Rs 100 crore has to be built. If a private company is contracted to do the job, does it mean it will walk away with the road once it's ready? The government will own the road even if someone else has built it. That someone was drafted in because the government lacked funds."

Modi outlined his government's priorities. "We want schools and hospitals in the villages so that the poor can study and get treatment. We will invest money in such things. A private company can put its capital into roads that belong to the government and to the 100 crore people of this country."

He said that industrial corridors, which the Opposition has insinuated are a ruse to bring in greater land acquisition for private projects, would partially answer two critical needs: creating jobs and containing rural migration.

"In most rural families, one son may take up farming but the rest would want to go out of the village in search of jobs because the sources of income have to be diversified in present times," the Prime Minister said.

"Now, if a road is built and an industrial corridor comes up by its side - I stress that a corridor that is not owned by a dhanna seth (wealthy merchant) but the government - and if it is 50km or 100km long, it can generate jobs for a host of nearby villages.

"Brothers and sisters, tell me who would want their children to spend the rest of their lives in the slums of Delhi and Mumbai? If small industrial corridors come up near villages and, more so, if they belong to the government, isn't it a better option?"

Modi admitted that the BJP had backed the 2013 law while in the Opposition but added that it had been framed and passed in an annan-fannan (hurry).

"After it was enacted, certain things caught our critical attention," Modi said, emphasising that his government's amendments were meant to "rectify" the law's shortcomings.

One alleged drawback he cited was the UPA's exclusion of 13 kinds of projects from the law. This, he said, implied that not only was consent not needed to acquire land for these 13 kinds of projects, farmers were given the same compensation as under the old colonial law.

"Wasn't this a mistake? We said that maybe it (land) is being acquired for the railways, mining or highways but we should still pay four times more compensation," Modi said.

"If we had not brought this amendment (through the December ordinance that the bill seeks to replace), farmers would have got the same paltry compensation as under the old law. Yet Modi is accused of short-changing farmers."

Although he refrained from political grandstanding and sounded defensive for the most part, Modi took a dig at the Congress at the start.

"Those claiming to be farmers' sympathisers and marching in protest ruled the country according to the old law, regardless of what happened to the farmers. Even when we were in the Opposition, we were convinced that the law needed to be changed," he said.


The Telegraph, 23 March, 2015, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150323/jsp/nation/story_10324.jsp#.VQ-K6473-xM


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