Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav on Saturday said his party would not allow the government to acquire even an acre of land in Haryana under the provisions of the ordinance on land acquisition. He along with a large number of supporters pledged to fight for farmers’ rights in the State.
Mr. Yadav was addressing a meeting at Kamla Nehru Park here at the launch of his party’s State-wide “Jai Kisan Abhiyan” in Haryana. Under the campaign, the party would give memorandums to all the ten Members of Parliament of Haryana and hold marches in respective constituencies with a request to oppose the ordinance.
Stating that the ordinance was anti-farmer, Mr. Yadav said: “We would oppose in every possible democratic manner the acquisition of land under the ordinance.”
Saying that the Modi Government had brought in a new law on land acquisition through backdoor, Mr. Yadav demanded that Haryana MPs oppose it. He said the government had changed the rules in awarding compensation for land acquisition thereby reducing the amount being given to farmers by half. “We demand that the government ensures complete compensation to the affected farmers and not leave them in the lurch.”
Mr. Yadav also raised the issue of scarcity of urea in the State and demanded to know as to who was benefitting from it. He sought impartial probe into it. “In its Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha manifestos the BJP had promised that the minimum support price would be fixed at more than 50 per cent the cost of produce, but the two governments have not even ensured that the MSP equals the cost of produce and even failed to lift some crops,” said Mr. Yadav, demanding that the BJP governments at the Centre and the State keep their words.
Later, Mr. Yadav along with a large number of farmers and partymen marched up to Sector 14 residence of Gurgaon MP and Union Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh and submitted a memorandum.
