Land Acquisition Act: Bansal, Chhabra, 200 other leaders detained during nationwide protest

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The march that started from Sector 18-19 lightpoint, saw several leaders marching towards Punjab Governor’s house in Sector 6 to hand over the memorandum demanding immediate withdrawal of the ordinance. The local police, however, detained them near Sector 7-8 roundabout around 1.30 pm and was later released from Sector 26 police station.

Assistant Superintendent Police (ASP) South, Parvinder Singh said, “All were detained under the preventive measures of the Criminal Procedure Code and were released later after the police received a communication from the SDM south office.” Addressing the media, Bansal said that the changes brought in by the NDA governmment in the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 through recent ordinance was anti farmer as it expanded list of projects to be exempted from requirements of farmers consent and Social Impact Assessment.

He said that the previous UPA government in 2013 introduced this Land Acquisition Act after due deliberation in Parliament where by the consent of more than 80 percent of landowners was required for acquisition of land. However, the current Central government at the centre removed this clause through recent ordinance which is anti-farmer and should be immediately rolled back.

“BJP even did not participate in the debate when this act by passed by our government in 2013. The Modi government again avoided the debate in the parliament by opting to bring ordinance to make changes in the act,” said Bansal.

While questioning the intention, local party president Pardeep Chhabra said that ever since the BJP led NDA government had assumed power at the centre, there seemed a deliberate attempt to harm the agriculture industry especially the small and marginal farmers and agriculture based workers.

“President of India himself had asked for an explanation in an emergency executive order on land acquisition amendments. The BJP government is not even following the routine democratic processes, he added. The Congress would continue to hold the protest till the ordinance was withdrawn.

Others who were detailed included former mayors including Subhash Chawla, Kamlesh, Harphool Kalyan besides Devinder Lubana (Sarpanch, Kishangarh), Gurdeep Singh (Ex-Sarpanch, Attawa), Anand Kajheri (Ex-Sarpanch, Kajheri), Gurpreet Singh (Sarpanch, Daria), Lakhwinder Singh (Ex-Sarpanch, Dhanas), Rakesh Sharma (Sarpanch, Khuda Lahora) Manmohan Singh and others.

Meanwhile , the protest led to a huge traffic chaos at Madhya Marg. Road leading to 7/8 roundabout was chocked with traffic for nearly half an hour. As many as three ambulances were trapped and police had a tough time to clear them out of the rush.