RLD to protest against ‘anti-farmer’ land ordinance

LUCKNOW: After Congress, it is Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal’s turn to rake up the issue of land acquisition ordinance. Keen to hold on to its Jat vote base following its debacle in the Lok Sabha elections, party leadership plans to hold a mass agitation against the ordinance on January 28 when party MLAs and state leaders will fan out in various districts, essentially in west UP, and hand over memorandum to district administration officials.The agitation would be kicked off by Ajit Singh son and party general secretary, Jayant Chaudhary from Mathura.
A senior RLD leader said the ordinance on land acquisition snatches away the rights of farmers by omitting steps like social impact assessment, impact on food security, and consent of 80% land owners.
RLD has been, in the past, holding sporadic agitations to protest the unfair acquisition of land in the state and in particular, the agitations in the Noida, Greater Noida, Mathura, Hathras, Agra and Aligarh districts.
Significantly, agitations and violence against protestors at Bhatta Parsaul, Bajna and Tappal recently led to a nationwide debate on the misuse of the provisions of the Acquisition Act, and indiscriminate use of force on protestors.
On August 26, 2010, thousands of farmers came to protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi where Jayant Chaudhary forcefully called for the Central government to intervene and move to pass a new Land Acquisition law in parliament. A year later, he managed to get a Private Member’s Bill on Land Acquisition introduced in the Lok Sabha.
The main tenets of the Bill included measures for limiting the government’s acquisition for private profit and the use of urgency clause in acquiring land. The proposal called for return of land to landowners in case the land is not utilised in the stated land use within a period of five years.
Not surprisingly, state leaders will try to expose intricacies of the ordinance to farmers who are likely to be affected the most. RLD state president Munna Singh Chauhan said various units have been asked to gear up for the demonstration.
Only four days ago, senior Congress leader and former rural development minister Jairam Ramesh held a public meeting in Bhatta Parsaul and criticised the government over the land acquisition ordinance, saying it is not in favor of farmers and laborers.
The Congress has so far been alleging the ordinance promulgated the government takes away the powers given to farmers by the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, enacted by the UPA-II regime in 2013.