Hitting out hard at the Centre over the contentious Land Bill, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said that the National Democratic Alliance government killed Land Acquisition Act brought by UPA within days of coming to power.
"We took two years to bring Land Bill and NDA government killed the Bill in a very short time. We said if the land is being taken, it will be taken with the consent of the poor but you said we will not ask the owner before taking the land," Rahul said while addressing the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Taking a jibe at the NDA government, Rahul said, "Earlier thieves used to steal at night, now they come suited-booted during the day. This government is anti-poor, anti-farmer; if we are not able to stop Land Bill in Parliament, we will oppose it on roads."
He also accused the government of stealing the land from farmers. "The government has a lot of land for development projects then why is the government insisting on taking the farmers' land? Government is stealing land of farmers. We said that if a farmers' land is taken and no project is started on the land in 5 years, the land shall be returned to the farmer but this has also been rejected in this new bill," Rahul said.
Rahul claimed that unlike the present government, the previous United Progressive Alliance government worked for the benefit of the poor. "NDA government says in its bill that there is no need of a social assessment. We said that there should be a social assessment of the Bill," he said.
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