AIUDF activists protest against the land acquisition bill in Guwahati on Thursday. Picture by UB Photos
This is the number which Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi touted here this afternoon to deflate the Gujarat model of development and oppose the land acquisition bill tabled in Parliament by the BJP-led NDA government.
"We are opposing the new land ordinance. The BJP had supported the UPA-piloted land bill before forming the government. They (BJP) were then pro-farmer but are now trying to acquire land for industry through the anti-farmer bill. We will oppose it. Everything is linked to land," Gogoi said.
Gogoi raked up the issues on a day the farmer suicide rocked the Modi government in Parliament.
The Centre has been facing a lot of flak over the fresh land acquisition ordinance issued on April 3. Gogoi has been consistent in his attack of Modi, whether it is his development model or the BJP's U-turn on the Indo-Bangladesh land-swap deal and big dam.
The chief minister, who will leave for Delhi tomorrow to attend the Niti Aayog meeting on Saturday, used today's interaction to mock Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development model, which, according to him was market-driven and also convey the pro-farmer and pro-poor measures undertaken by his government.
These measures include instruction to all deputy commissioners to convert all allotment certificates and annual deeds into periodic deeds in rural areas within October so it could help farmers avail loan from banks.
Other measures are computerisation of land records by July so that landowners and bankers can view land documents on the website and registration of pending mutation and partition cases within two months.
"All land acquisition will be done in accordance with the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, (Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013)," a note prepared by the chief minister's office for the media interaction said.
Apart from dwelling on improving government services related to land issues, a cumbersome process, Gogoi also reiterated his commitment to ensure Rs 169 as minimum daily wage to tea garden workers and implementation of the Plantation Labour Act, 1951.
"We admit we should have done it earlier but we are determined to get it implemented this time. We have already registered 31 cases against tea gardens for violating the act," Gogoi said.
The Opposition AIUDF student and youth wings today opposed the new land acquisition bill, which the Modi government is trying to get approved in Lok Sabha.
They jointly took out a "Raj Bhavan chalo" programme here. About 500 youths who joined the procession later submitted a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee through Assam governor P.B. Acharya, demanding scrapping of the bill on the ground that it would break the backbone of the farming community.
