Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Sunday that the Aam Aadmi Party will not allow the BJP’s central government to acquire land of farmers in Delhi without their consent.
Addressing the party’s Village Dialogue Initiative at Chattarpur, Kejriwal said the ordinance brought by Narendra Modi government to amend the Land Acquisition Act of 2013 is against the interests of farmers and the AAP will strongly oppose it.
Kejriwal said both the changes in the ordinance for amending the 2013 law will adversely affect the farmers and rural population of Delhi.
Kejriwal said, “The AAP is of the clear view that land owned by farmers can only be acquired by the government, if they are in favour of it and forcible acquisition cannot be allowed.”
He said, “The Modi government had imposed its wrong decision on the country by removing the clause from the 2013 law on land acquisition which made it mandatory to seek a consent of around 70% land owners of the area, but the ordinance states that no consent will be required for acquisition in five particular categories, which are so wide that government can now acquire land for private companies without caring for farmers.”
Referring to the second change by the ordinance, which removes the clause related to return of land to the owner in case the purpose for which it was acquired is not completed within five years, Kejriwal said this change in the 2013 law is particularly detrimental to the interests of poor people of Delhi.
Giving the example of unauthorised colonies, the former chief minister said in some parts of Delhi such colonies have come up on the land owned by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).
“As these colonies have not been regularised for a long time due to wrong policies of successive governments, does it imply that now the government agencies will become the owner of such plots of land according to the provisions of the ordinance?” he added.