On Mann ki Baat, Modi asks farmers to trust him on land bill

Directly reaching out to farmers over the controversial Land Acquisition Bill, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked them not to be misled by “rumours and lies” as he slammed the opposition for trying to create confusion for “political reasons”.

With the government under attack for bringing amendments to the Land Act of 2013, he insisted that the proposed new bill, which has got stuck in Rajya Sabha after  passage in Lok Sabha, was an improved version for the benefit of farmers and villages.

Speaking on the issue over radio in his monthly ‘Mann ki Baat’ programme, he said the new bill addresses “lacunae” in the earlier law which was “enacted in a hurry” but maintained that the government is willing to accommodate any more suggestion in farmers’ interest.

During the 30-minute programme, the PM said the states have favoured changes in the Land Act of 2013 but if any state wants to go by the previous law, they are free to do so.

Making a veiled attack on Congress, he said, “Those projecting themselves as sympathisers of farmers and undertaking protests” had been using a 120-year-old law to acquire farm land for over 60-65 years after Independence and were now targeting his government which is “trying to improve upon the Act of 2013”.

He underlined that the new bill has the same compensation provisions as in the 2013 Act and emphatically rejected allegations that the new measure was aimed at benefiting the corporates.

He also said that ‘no consent’ provision in the proposed new law applies to acquisitions by government for government or PPP projects and insisted that the same clause exists in the previous act.

“I am surprised that all kinds of misinformation is spread,” the PM said, focusing on the issue over which his government has come under severe attack and uniting opposition parties which have stepped up campaign against it.

“Our commitment is to ensure benefits for farmers through the Land Acquisition Act… So many lies are being spread… It is my fervent appeal to farmers not to make decisions on the basis of these lies. Don’t be misled,” he said, adding, “You trust me, I will not betray your trust.”

He went on to add: “Rumours are being spread that Modi is bringing the law to reduce compensation. I can’t even think of committing such a sin... Such misinformation is being carried out for political reasons. You have to guard against them.”

The PM asserted that there is absolutely no change in the compensation that will be paid to farmers.

Referring to the consent clause issue, he said misinformation is being spread for “political reasons”.

Modi said the enactment of Land Acquisition law in 2013 during the United Progressive Alliance tenure was done in a “hurried” manner and Bharatiya Janata Party, which was in opposition at that time, had supported it for the sake of farmers.

“If anything is done in a hurry, some lacunae remain. May be the intent was not wrong but lacunae are there which need to be corrected. I am not levelling any allegations against the previous government as to what it wanted or not wanted,” he said.

“In the Act of 2013 there were certain lacunae... Our attempt is to address these lacunae to ensure that the law is beneficial for villagers, farmers, their future generations and to ensure they get electricity and water,” he said.

Talking about the lacunae, he said the biggest among them was that 13 aspects of government activity, like railways, national highway and mining, for which land is mostly acquired, were kept out of the ambit of that law.

It meant that compensation for acquiring land for these purposes would be paid on the basis of the 120-year-old law, he said, adding this has been addressed and hence farmers will get four times compensation for these too.

“I said in Parliament also that even now if somebody feels that something is still lacking, we are ready to make improvements. Our intention is only to see that farmers benefit, their children benefit, villages benefit. So if there are any lacunae in the law, these must be addressed. This is our priority,” the PM said.