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New Delhi/Lucknow:
A new law for better compensation to farmers will be introduced,
the government announced Thursday, as the politics over land
sharpened with Congress workers clashing with police in Uttar
Pradesh, Chief Minister Mayawati slamming the opposition and the
BJP too jumping into the fray.
A day after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi was arrested
and subsequently released for staging dramatic a sit-in in support
of farmers in Bhatta-Parsaul village in Greater Noida, the
epicentre of protests for higher compensation for land acquired
for a highways project, the volatile issue of compensation for
farmland gained centrestage.
As the debate intensified and unrest continued, Home Minister P.
Chidambaram stepped in to promise a new land acquisition law for
better compensation and rehabilitation to farmers in the next
session of parliament in July.
"We must have a new land acquisition act. Consensus building has
taken some time," the minister told reporters.
It was almost as if the central government was responding directly
to Mayawati's allegations.
Faced with protests by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at its
western border in Ghaziabad and furious Congress workers taking to
the streets over Rahul Gandhi's arrest, Mayawati accused
opposition parties of instigating farmers.
The farmers are agitating for higher compensation for land
acquired for the 156-km Yamuna Expressway, linking New Delhi with
Agra, a dream project of the chief minister.
With Rahul Gandhi seizing the initiative by staging a daylong
sit-in at Bhatta-Parsaul over the emotive issue, after sneaking
into the area riding pillion on a motorcycle, Mayawati sought to
regain her edge. The issue has led to four people being killed in
clashes.
Calling him a "bechara" (helpless) and a "yuvraj" (crown prince)
who was engaging in "dramabazi" (theatrics), who could do nothing
over the delays by the central government in passing an amended
land acquisition bill, she lashed out: "It seems this helpless
individual's writ is not running within his own party."
Uttar Pradesh, she said, had evolved its own land acquisition
policy because of delays by the central government.
The chief minister also denied that the land of farmers in
Bhatta-Parsaul was being acquired for the Yamuna Expressway. "That
particular land had been acquired in 2009 for general development
by the Greater Noida authority against which all the compensation
was duly paid to the farmers as per the terms of our own
acquisition policy."
A clearly piqued Mayawati also hit out at Congress president Sonia
Gandhi for turning a blind eye to what she termed "inadequate
compensation" paid to farmers in her own parliamentary
constituency Rae Bareli, where agricultural land was acquired for
a rail coach factory.
On the streets across several places in the state, hundreds of
Congress activists, including state party chief Rita Bahuguna
Joshi, were detained as they blockaded key roads as well as
railway tracks.
The reports came from Sitapur, Banda, Mainpuri, Rae Bareli and
Varanasi, as well as places like Kanpur, Mathura and Agra.
Congress leaders were quick to seize on the moment. Digvijay
Singh, who was with Rahul Gandhi in Bhatta-Parsaul, demanded a
judicial inquiry into "atrocities" on farmers.
"The inquiry should be called before the Uttar Pradesh government
destroys all the evidence. We have ourselves seen heaps of dead
bodies in the area," added Singh.
The BJP too hitched a ride on the political bandwagon.
"The struggle has been launched. It would have been better if the
chief minister would have sat and talked to them," said senior BJP
leader L.K. Advani.
Former BJP president Rajnath Singh and leaders Arun Jaitley and
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi were among those arrested in Ghaziabad, where
a daylong fast was staged as prohibitory orders were in force in
Greater Noida.
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