Assam government preparing separate Land Acquisition Bill: Tarun Gogoi

He said his government will not implement the amended Act by the Centre.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said his government will not implement the amended Act by the Centre.

Dismissing possibilities of his government implementing the central land acquisition Act that was recently amended through an Ordinance, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday said that his Congress government would instead introduce a new Land Acquisition Bill for the state.

“As I have already said earlier, we are not going by the Land Acquisition Act of the BJP-led government at the Centre. Instead we are preparing a new Land Acquisition Bill which will be introduced in the state assembly soon,” Gogoi said here on Sunday.

The chief minister however was not sure whether the bill would be ready for tabling in the forthcoming budget session of the assembly. “I am not sure whether it will be tabled in March, but we are definitely going to do it,” he added.

Chief Minister Gogoi had strongly opposed the Narendra Modi government’s decision of January 9 to amend the ‘Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013’ through an Ordinance. “It was against the interest of farmers,” Gogoi had said.

Gogoi’s take was the NDA government had diluted the clauses related to compensation and rehabilitation of displaced people in the interest of big industrial houses. “We do need industries in Assam. We have been inviting people to come and invest here. But industries cannot be set up at the cost of land belonging to my farmers,” he said.

On Assam’s industrialization, Gogoi said Assam definitely required industries, but only medium and small industries. “I don’t want big industries. Instead medium and small industries are better for Assam where land is scarce,” he said.

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