Congress vows to take bill battle to Delhi

To meet President and urge him not to give his assent

Hyderabad: Leader of Opposition (Congress) K Jana Reddy and Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President
N Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the government adopted an undemocratic and dictatorial attitude in not allowing his party members to raise farmers' problems. They lashed out at the State government for adopting undemocratic methods in passing Telangana Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill (Telangana Amendment Act, 2016) in both the Houses without any debate Favouring conducting a social impact assessment in the process of land acquisition, Uttam Kumar Reddy said his party would meet President Pranab Mukherjee to urge him not to accept the bill.

Speaking to media persons at media point, Jana Reddy said the Congress party has been playing a constructive role and the party intended to bring the plight of the chilli farmers to the notice of the government. But the government, in an autocratic manner, passed the amendments in less than 10 minutes. He urged the people to take note of the way Assembly proceedings were conducted on Sunday and teach a lesson to the government at an appropriate time. He also appealed to the peoples’ organisations to disapprove of the TRS government’s anti-people attitude. The TPCC President demanded an apology from Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

He said the Chief Minister did not even come to the House to facilitate a debate on such an important issue. He said that the Congress party would take up the fight to Delhi and meet President of India Pranab Mukherjee within a week requesting him to reject the Bill. The TPCC President said the amended Bill was also detrimental to the interest of farmers in the State. He alleged that the amendments were made in a haste for the benefit some contractors who were being awarded contracts through 'non-competitive and manipulative' tenders.

He alleged that the TRS government and KCR were anti-farmer. He said more than 3,000 farmers had committed suicides during the last three years under the TRS rule.He said that the Law Department should have gone through the amendments with a fine tooth comb, especially regarding the requirement of Social Impact Assessment (SIA). However, he said the Social Impact Assessment was given a complete miss in the amended bill. "Social Impact Assessment and Food Security provisions are foundational element with the Land Acquisition Act 2013 and they cannot be done away with," he added.UttamKumar Reddy said in a democratic country, a farmer has equal rights as that of a Chief Minister.

However, by passing the controversial Bill, TRS government had displayed its arrogance and KCR was treating Telangana State as his personal fiefdom," he said, adding that most of the oustee farmers belonged to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The Congress party demanded that land acquisition be carried out only under Land Acquisition Act 2013 which was passed after a thorough discussion in Parliament. "TRS leaders are making false propaganda that Congress was stalling the projects. We are not against development. But we want the government to protect the interest of farmers by implementing Land Acquisition Act 2013 only," he said.