‘Ordinance unconstitutional’

CPM leader and Left Front chairman Biman Bose,who is attending the party’s three-day politburo meeting in Hyderabad slammed the decision of Chief Minster Mamata Banerjee saying it was “not at all possible to bring in an ordinance when the Assembly was in session”.

“According to Article 213 of the Constitution,it is not possible. On how did it happen,we have to take information properly,” said Bose.

In Kolkata,a Left Front delegation met Governor K R Narayanan urging him to intervene in the matter. “We told the Governor that he should immediately consult legal and constitutional experts and withdraw his consent from it,” said Leader of Opposition Suryakant Mishra and added that the chief minster’s annoucement “breached all constitutional rights and violated the existing norms”.

Mishra said the Governor has assured them that no unconstitutional measures will be allowed.

While in power,the Left Front had opposed the return of the 400 acres of the land to the unwilling farmers. But today it stressed that “they have no problems with the content of the ordinance”. “We are strongly objecting to the procedure of effecting the return of the land,” said Mishra.

“We are in complete darkness about the text of the ordinance and have also not received any Gazette notification on it,” said Mishra,adding that any such notifications need to be published at the earliest.

“If the incumbent government can maintain balance between agriculture and industry we would surely welcome it,” said Mishra and added that the state government should primarily pass a bill in the present Assembly session to bring the ordinance into force.

Another argument of the Left Front is that there are no existing provisions to return the land. He said that the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 should be scrapped by the Centre and unless the issues of compensation,land acquisition and resettlement are not sorted out,these complications would continue.

— With PTI inputs from Hyderabad