Tarun Gogoi's move to reject Land Acquisition Act 'political': Gowda

Guwahati: Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda today criticised Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi over his decision not to implement the recently amended central Land Acquisition Act and termed it as a “political” move.  

“The Hon'ble Chief Minister of Assam is making a political statement,” Gowda told reporters here.  “The amended Act will never affect farmers. In fact, it has strengthened the farmers and there will be no harm to them. The amendments were brought in to make Land Acquisition a little industry-friendly,” he said.

The Union government is ready to discuss the Act which was recently amended through an ordinance, he said.  Gogoi had last month rejected implementing the central Act and said his government was drafting a new Land Acquisition Bill for Assam.

Earlier too, he had strongly opposed the Centre's decision to amend the ‘Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013' through an ordinance and had said his government would not implement it as it is against the interests of farmers. 

Gogoi had charged the NDA government of diluting the clauses related to compensation and rehabilitation of displaced people to the benefit of “big industries”.  Gowda said 283 courts out of the total 287 in Assam will be made e-courts by March this year in the first phase.  “The Centre had allocated Rs 121 crore for Assam under this project and Rs 24 crore has been released. Out of this, Rs 8.14 crore have been utilised so far,” he said.