Chandigarh: Led by former CM and Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Congress MLAs on Tuesday met Governor Bandaru Dattatreya and gave him a memorandum on issues of land acquisition Bill passed by the Assembly recently and lathi-charge on farmers in Karnal recently.
The Congress MLAs urged the Governor through the memorandum to not accord his approval to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2021, passed by the state Assembly in the just concluded monsoon session and send it back to the Vidhan Sabha for reconsideration under Article 200 of the Constitution.
"This Bill is anti-farmer, anti-poor and undemocratic. The Bill was passed hurriedly without detailed discussion in the House," Hooda said.
Talking to reporters, Hooda said the new Bill is against the intention and spirit of the Central Principal Act of 2013 and will hurt the interest and sentiments of farmers who are already agitating against agriculture laws for the last 9 months. He said provisions that safeguarded the interests of farmers have been taken away.
"Under the old law, the consent of 75% of the land holders was required for the Public Private Partnership projects and according to Section 10 of the Act, fertile land could not be acquired. This provision has been waived in the new law. It is clear that this amendment is against the farmers and in favour of the capitalists. The purpose of the law is to snatch the land of the farmer without his consent," the former chief minister said.
Congress MLAs also raised the issue of "barbaric" lathi-charge in Karnal on August 28 before the Governor. Hooda said this lathi-charge took place after deep thinking and planning of the government. In this, a video of a high official also went viral, in which he is talking about breaking the heads of farmers.
The Congress MLAs have demanded a judicial inquiry from a sitting judge of the High Court or a retired judge so that the injured farmers can get complete justice.
Earlier, addressing media persons, Hooda poohpoohed claims of development made by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on the completion of 2500 days of the BJP government during a Press conference on Monday.
He said that no new railway line, new metro train line, AIIMS, university, power plant, national level institute or a big industry has been established in the state during the entire tenure of BJP.