Capt talks, Jakhar walks
Saturday, 07/12/2013
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=88414&boxid=57259&uid=&dat=2013-12-07
Chandigarh : In what appears to be a race for one-upmanship in the “divided house” of Punjab Congress, a delegation of the state’s main Opposition party called on Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, in New Delhi on Friday.
Led by Leader of Opposition Sunil Jakhar, the Congress leaders raised the issue of acquisition of land in Punjab through the age-old Land Acquisition Act of 1894 even as a new Central Land Acquisition Law has been introduced.
The development assumes significance as former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh has on Thursday itself raised the issue. Amarinder, who after being divested from the post of Punjab Congress president was made the permanent invitee to the “more powerful” Congress Working Committee, had said that he will not let the SAD-BJP government to circumvent the new Central Land Acquisition Law and will ensure that the farmers get justice and their land was not acquired forcibly against their will.
In a bid to cash-on the issue, a Congress delegation, sans Amarinder, and comprising party MPs Ravneet Singh Bittu, Mohinder Singh Kaypee and MLA Jagmohan Singh Kang Ramesh to apprise the land acquisition process started by the Punjab government in Mohali, Patiala and Ludhiana districts under the old 1894 law.
Bittu and Kang complained to the Union Minister that “Punjab was trying to circumvent the farmer-friendly Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 by forcibly trying to acquire land in dozens of villages of Majri Block in Mohali under the archaic 1894 Act, which now stands repealed.”
All these villages fall under Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha constituency, represented by Bittu and Kharar Assembly segment, from where Kang is legislator. The land is being acquired under the New Chandigarh Master Plan (Mullanpur Master Plan).
