December 14, 2024 09:55 (IST)
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Jaitley defends land acquisition bill at national executive
Bengaluru, Apr 4 (IBNS) Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday that the 2013 Land Acquisition Bill prepared by the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was anti-farmer but they have made amendments to it and made it beneficial to the farmers.
Jaitley told journalists here on the second day of the BJP National Executive that the proposed Land Bill has many benefits to the farmers.
Arun Jaitley said the party was fully behind the initiatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the government, including the land bill.
"The party is firmly behind government on the land bill," Jaitley said, adding that the new bill will improve rural infrastructure and proposed industrial corridors will provide jobs to the rural poor.
Jaitley said BJP would open one office in every district headquarters of the country and 15 lakh members of the party will be trained in political activism.
The second and concluding day meeting of the BJP's National Executive began on Saturday Morning presumably to firm up its strategy on the government's proposed land reforms that has met with stiff resistance from a united opposition on the ground of it being "anti farmer."
Reports said the party will use power-point presentations and booklets to highlight its strategy to tackle the opposition led by the Congress.
The government's land ordinance aims at making land purchases easier for industrial corridors, roads, ports, power stations, among other infrastructure projects.
The government had to reissue the ordinance since an earlier decree which was sought to be made into a legislation through a bill failed in the face of opposition resistance which, irrespective of political hues is hell-bent on not allowing the government any such move.
The Congress has planned a massive farmers' rally on April 19, which is likely to be addressed by its Vice President Rahul Gandhi.
It is expected that the BJP will announce a series of awareness rallies and a mass contact programme in its bid to counter the "anti farmer" tag on the land bill .
On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assailed the opposition on the issue saying, "People launch campaigns for farmers just for politics, they don't understand basic issues...I was raised among the poor, I understand farmers' pain... their interests must be protected."
The ordinance now includes nine changes made when a bill to replace it was passed in the Lok Sabha last month. With no possibility of the bill making it through the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling BJP and its allies are in a minority, the government had no option but to issue the ordinance again.
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