Criticising NTPC for the alleged forced acquisition, Ramesh said, "Companies must also learn to be sensitive, changing aspirations."
"NTPC will face a challenge. If there is firing in an NTPC project and people get killed in that firing, they cannot acquire the land...Indian companies still believe that they can use government to forcibly acquire land. That era is gone. You cannot do forcible acquisition," the Minister said when asked about the reported criticism by a top NTPC official of the new Land Acquisition legislation.
"If this (new) land acquisition law is properly implemented, it will defeat Naxalism," he said, referring to incidents of "inhumane" displacement of tribals from forests for various public and private sector projects in mineral-rich states like Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
The new law will be notified in three months. Ramesh said, "Land Acquisition is the root of the Maoist issue. If you have a humane, sensitive and responsible land acquisition policy, lot of your problems relating to Naxalism would go. Tribals will be with you.
"It is a fact that many of the tribals have been displaced and they have not got proper compensation, they have not got rehabilitation and resettlement...Particularly in mining of coal and irrigation projects," he added.
