Under pressure over farmers’ agitation, the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday announced a new land acquisition policy under which its role in acquiring land for private developers would only be that of a facilitator.
The chief minister, who held a farmers’ panchayat earlier in the day to discuss their problems, announced that the new policy will be implemented with immediate effect.
Facing flak over acquiring land for private companies, the government has decided that from now on, the developers would be acquiring land directly from the farmers.
The chief minister also said that such acquisitions could only happen with the agreement of 70 per cent of the farmers in a given area. In case of disagreement, the project would be reviewed, she said.
Giving details of the new policy, she said that in the affected villages where land has been acquired, the developer would have to construct a kisan bhawan as well as a model school.
The chief minister clarified that areas where land has already been acquired and compensation distributed to farmers including Bhatta-Parsaul and Tappal will be out of the ambit of the policy.
Mayawati said the new policy has been framed tosafeguard the interest of farmers, adding that their suggestions during the day-long panchayat here, would be incorporated in the government order.
Terming the new policy a historic one, she said efforts would be made to get it implemented at the national level as the Union government also plans to bring a land acquisition bill during the Monsoon Session.
She stuck to her threat of protesting outside Parliament if the Centre failed to bring a new bill in the Monsoon Session.
This policy is even better than the ones being implemented in Congress-ruled states like Haryana, she claimed.
Blaming the Opposition for instigating the recent agitations, she said that instead of putting pressure on the Centre to amend the existing policy, they enacted a “drama” in UP and created a law and order problem at some places in the state.
The chief minister said an assurance has been given to representatives from Bhatta-Parsaul that the government would compensate the damages.