Mamata to hit the streets against land acquisition ordinance

5 Dariya News

Kolkata 02-Apr-2015

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will hit the streets here on April 8 against the Narendra Modi government's ordinance amending the land acquisition law, the Trinamool Congress announced Thursday.Disclosing this at a media meet here, Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee said Banerjee, who is also the party supremo, would take part in the protest rally to be taken out by the party from Moulali to Gandhi statue on Mayo Road.Calling the acquisition "draconian" and "kala ordinance" (black ordinance), Chatterjee said: "We will protest against it.""Our party chairperson will participate in the mega rally in Kolkata against the ordinance. Similar rallies will be held in every district of Bengal," he said.Chatterjee, also the state education minister, said the protesters would wear black badges and cover their mouth with a black cloth.

Calling upon the people of Kolkata to participate in the rally, he recalled that the party had carried out movements against land acquisition in the past too.

The Trinamool had led a farmers' protest in Nandigram in East Midnapore district and Hooghly district's Singur in protest against the then Left Front government's bid to acquire farmland for industries between 2006 and 2008.Its popularity graph went up after the protests and it came to power in the state in 2011.The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015, which will replace an ordinance promulgated by the union government, was passed by the Lok Sabha but is facing stiff opposition in the Rajya Sabha with even some NDA allies coming out against it.Unable to have the bill passed before the land acquisition ordinance lapses on April 5, the BJP-led government has now prorogued the Rajya Sabha and is likely to repromulgate the ordinance.