Odisha civil society opposes ordinance on Land Acquisition Act

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Dec 31:

Terming the ordinance aproved by the Union Cabinet to amend the Land Acquisition Act 2013 even before the Act has been implemented at the ground level as ‘unacceptable, anti-poor and anti-farmer’, the National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements (NAPM) and Odisha based civil rights group Lok Shakti Abhiyan have said it reflected the anti democratic and authoritarian streak of the NDA government at the Centre.

“We fail to understand what emergency forced the Government to take the ordinance route at this juncture. This is only being done solely to benefit the corporate houses and nothing else,” Prafulla Samantara of the Lok Shakti Abhiyan told newsmen here on Tuesday

He further stated that the Land Acquisition Act 2013 was framed after consulting all the stakeholders over a period of seven years and after it went through two Parliamentary Standing committees (2007 and 2009), both headed by senior BJP leaders, Kalyan Singh and Sumitra Mahajan.

“The explanation that an ordinance became necessary to deal with matters arising out of the Section 105 of the Act is completely false. It is not only misleading but also an attempt to obfuscate what the Act mandates. As per the Act, the Government was to bring a notification in the Parliament in 2014 to extend the provisions of compensation and R&R to the people affected by land acquisition carried through the 13 Central Acts, as mentioned in Fourth Schedule,” he added.

Samantara said dilution of the provisions for the consent of the land losers and conducting the Social Impact Assessment for all projects is completely uncalled for and will only make matters worse.

The Abhijan will oppose the ordinance’s passage in the Parliament, he added.