Express News Service By

BENGALURU: Slamming the Narendra Modi-led Government for proposing the Land Acquisition Bill, Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said that the party would use the Bill as the Sanjeevini (life saving medicinal plant) for its revival to return to power at the Centre.

The former Union minister told reporters here on Saturday that both Narendra Modi and Union Minister of Road Transport Nitin Gadkari are the chief architects of the Bill. He said the Centre is imposing it on the farmers to help a few crony capitalists in the country.

“Both the leaders, in their bid to convince the people on the Bill, are spreading lies,” Jairam said. He critcised the Centre for adopting anti-farmer policies and added that BJP’s proposed land Bill seeks to demolish the very basic structure of the 2013 Act (Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013).

Stating that the UPA had brought the Act in 2013 to protect the interest of farmers, he said,”The credit of placing a farmers-friendly land Act should go to all the political parties, including the BJP.”

The Congress leader said that the then UPA Government took several months to give shape to the 2013 Act. “We had agreed to all the suggestions and amendments recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee to draft the Bill chaired by senior BJP leader and current Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan,” he said.

Describing the attempt by the Centre to push the Bill at any cost as anti-democratic and dictatorial in nature, Jairam said that the Congress would oppose the legislation both inside and outside the Parliament.

He rejected the charges levelled against the Congress by the BJP that the 2013 Act served as a major hurdle in attracting FDI in various infrastructure projects.

“There is no evidence to show that several projects were put on hold because of the 2013 Act.”

Jairam said the NDA government did not take sincere steps to implement the 2013 Act and the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in the state will not accept the Land Acquisition Act of the NDA government.