Congress urges Prez to junk LA Bill

​Hyderabad: Telangana Congress leaders led by TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy urged the President of India Pranab Mukherjee to reject the new land bill "Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Telangana Amendment) Bill, 2016” which was passed by the Assembly.

In a memorandum submitted at Rashtrapati Nilayam here on Friday, the Congress party alleged that the State government had come up with this bill to acquire lands from the farmers in the name of projects.

In the memorandum, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that Section 107 of the R & R Act, 2013, makes it clear that no amendments should be made to it, unless the proposed changes are aimed at improving the benefits and safeguards provided to landowners under the 2013 law.

Hence, it is clear that the amendments made by the Telangana government do not satisfy these requirements and instead the proposed changes are sought to dilute the protection and safeguards provided to the landowners under the 2013 Act.

That means, the sole purpose behind this is to make the process of acquiring land easier for the State authorities, while curtails the rights given to the people by the land mark 2013 Act, Reddy said.

The memorandum further said, "The State amended the key provisions of the R & R Act, 2013 passed during the UPA regime, only to remove safeguards such as Social Impact Assessment, R &R Package and other benefits provided to landowners.

The State's proposed law is an attempt to take away the hard fought rights and protections afforded to the affected families in the name of administrative convenience in land acquisitions."