Land acquisition must be transparent: Sonia

Amid the debate over special economic zones, Congress President Sonia Gandhi made it clear on Wednesday that land acquisition for SEZs must be done in a transparent manner.

"Our party's position is very clear. Land acquisition for these SEZs, like indeed for any economic activity, must be done in a transparent manner," she said addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting in New Delhi.

In the past few months, issues related to SEZs had come into prominence in some states leading to violence and tragic consequences, she said adding that land acquisition must also be done in a manner that fully protected the interests of farmers and of those

livelihoods were dependent on the lands being acquired.

Keeping this in view, the empowered group of ministers headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had only cleared those SEZs where fresh land acquisition was not required or where land acquisition had already taken place, she said.

"Our government is also working on a new rehabilitation and resettlement policy, a new resettlement and rehabilitation Bill and on amendments to the existing Land Acquisition Act. All these three are expected to be cleared very soon," Gandhi said.

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