Medha Patkar meets Mamata Banerjee on land acquisition bill

New Delhi, Nov 20 (IANS) Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar met Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee here Friday to convey her opposition to certain provisions of the land acquisition bill that is to be introduced in the winter session of parliament.

The government has included the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill as proposed new legislations in the agenda of the winter session of parliament.

The Trinamool Congress chief has reservations to aspects of the land acquisition bill which provides for private developers to acquire 70 percent of the land for industrial projects directly from the farmers and landowners, while the remaining 30 percent is to be acquired by the state government.

Banerjee, who led a prolonged agitation against land acquisition for the Tata's Nano project at Singur in West Bengal, conveyed her views on the bill to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the last session of parliament.

Patkar said the definition of 'public purpose' in the land acquisition bill should be unambiguous and should not leave any scope for private interest to creep in. She said there should not be forcible acquisition of land for companies.

Referring to a parliamentary report, she said that cultivable land in the country had reduced by 30 lakh hectares between 1955 and 2005. 'We demand that agricultural land should not be acquired for industry,' she said.

Patkar, who also conveyed her views to Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit, maintained that Mamata Banerjee has not diluted her stand on the land acquisition bill.