Mamata threatens walkout over land bill

The Union Cabinet on Thursday witnessed a rare spectacle of a minister threatening to walk out when Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee virtually revolted against the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill and the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill brought for its assent.

Banerjee vociferously opposed the much-awaited, and delayed, bill saying she could not support in Delhi what she had opposed in West Bengal. She almost walked out before being persuaded to return.

The Railway Minister is understood to have raised serious objection to the bill relating to land acquisition for industrialisation and rehabilitation of the land losers.

Mamata is understood to have opposed a major provision in the bill, which provides for private developers acquiring 70 per cent of the land for a proposed industrial project directly from the farmers and land-owners. The remaining 30 per cent is to be acquired by the state government, the bill proposes.

Banerjee, who was in the forefront of the agitations in Nandigram and Singur in West Bengal on the same issue, is understood to have strongly demanded penal provisions to check the use of money and muscle power by private developers while acquiring land from the farmers.

The party feels that these legislations fall short of protecting poor farmers as their rehabilitation and resettlement is not fully guaranteed by the provisions. The TMC had earlier put forward its suggestions on the legislations in writing much before the bills were brought to the Cabinet for its consideration, party sources said.

The Union Cabinet met for three hours on Thursday night.

(From PTI inputs)