Workers of the Punjab Congress clashed with the police here on Tuesday while protesting against the Land Acquisition Bill. The police had to resort to use of water canons to prevent them from marching to the Assembly and some protesters and police personnel sustained minor injuries in the melee.
The Congress had earlier on March 19 given a call to gherao the Assembly. Its activists led by Punjab unit president Partap Singh Bajwa held the protest march in keeping with the party’s stand on opposing the Bill being pushed by the BJP Government at the Centre.
Addressing the protesters, Mr. Bajwa said farmers of Punjab were opposed to the changes being introduced in the Land Acquisition Bill now.
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He said it was the Congress-led UPA government which had brought this land acquisition law to protect the interests of the farms but through the new amendments, the BJP Government was seeking to dilute those provisions which protect the rights of the land owners.
Mr. Bajwa also accused the Shiromani Akali Dal of supporting the BJP on this issue in Parliament and charged that its stance has exposed its claims of being a saviour of the farmers.
Declaring that the Congress will not let the Centre take away a single inch of land belonging to the farmers anywhere in the country, Mr. Bajwa said the farmers of Punjab will also not forgive Prime Minister Modi and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for what they have done.
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Despite opposition by the Congress and some other parties, the Lok Sabha had earlier this month passed The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 which sought to replace an ordinanace promulgated by the Centre in December 2014 by which a law passed in 2013 was amended. The Bill now faces a test in Rajya Sabha, where BJP is in a minority.
Though nine amendments were moved by the government for addressing the concerns of the farmers, the move had evoked a strong response from the opposition parties as it had done away with the need to obtain the consent of land-owners and carrying out a social impact assessment before acquiring any land.
The Congress has been opposing the new Bill and last week party president had led a march by the combined opposition from Parliament to Rashtrapati Bhawan where a memorandum was submitted to the President.