Two Sangh leaders oppose land Bill

Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, May 3

Two Sangh Parivar leaders, both close to Narendra Modi when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, have opposed the centre’s Land Acquisition Bill describing the proposed measure as “anti-farmer.”

State president of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh Maganbhai Patel and the international president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad Pravin Togadia have said the government should spare the farmland and allot only the wasteland to industries. “There is enough wasteland for industries and this must be used first before turning to the farmland,” Patel said.

Suggesting the Modi government to bring a Land Utility Bill instead of the present Land Acquisition Bill, Patel said the new Bill should also provide for return of the farmland to the farmers in case of non-utilisation, the BKS leader said more than 70 per cent of the land allotted to industries in the past had not been used.

“It is wrong to move the Land Acquisition Bill to acquire more land from the farmers,” Patel said.

He wrote to the Prime Minister stating that in every case of “sale, lease, or partnership relating to a farmland, farmers’ consent must be taken”, the provision that had remained a bone of contention between the government and the opposition.

Expressing anxiety over land issues, he said: “We want to express BKS’ views on key issues faced by farmers and request you to take necessary action. Farmers’ issues have not been addressed comprehensively.”

Reflecting similar sentiments, Togadia said the rights of 60 crore farmers in the country had been ignored for long. “I want to state clearly that we are against land acquisition. The land of farmers should not be acquired.”

Togadia said: “Of the total land in the country, about 50 per cent is non-agricultural. I want industries to come up and flourish, but only on non-agricultural land. You can take the farmland if you want to make roads. But it is not right to acquire 1 km of farmer’s land on both sides of the road,” Togadia said. Referring to the spate of suicide by farmers, the VHP leader said the country should move ahead of the BJP-Congress politics on farmers.

“Both Centre and state governments need to change their outlook towards farmers, or 60 crore farmers will not be able to survive in villages. They will start migrating to cities and the cities will not be able to sustain the influx,” he said.