Land rules violated by Hooda, UPA governments for Gandhi trust: Rajnath Singh

Gurgaon (Haryana), Aug.5 (ANI): Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajnath Singh has accused the UPA and Haryna Governments of violating rules related to land acquisition and insisted that there has been a gross abuse of political power in allocating land to a trust managed by the Nehru-Gandhi family.

He noted that market rates must be taken into consideration before a deal is finalized with farmers about their land.

"Any charitable trust or an NGO (Non Government Organisation), whoever needs the land, can buy it from any land owner or, the government can also allot it to them. But I have to say that the forceful acquisition of land should not happen. If the land is acquired by any charitable trust or NGO with the consent of the farmers, then it should be bought on proper market rates," said Singh.

He added: "The Congress government is trying to acquire lands forcefully. The landowners didn't get proper compensation by the government. As far as Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) is concerned, the village council allotted the land to the trust on lease and therefore it is evident that the process of land acquisition began way before the land was leased. Section 4 and section 6 was imposed on the land, however, the imposition was lifted and the land was allotted to RGCT on lease at rates as low as Rs.3 lakh per acre."

Farmers organised a village council meeting in Gurgaon District to protest the allocation of land to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) by the Haryana Government.

The chairperson of India's United Progress Alliance (UPA), Sonia Gandhi, her son and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Vadra are trustees of RGCT.

The provisions of the draft Land Acquisition Bill released on July 29 aim to provide adequate compensation to landowners and ensure that those displaced would be rehabilitated.

According to the bill, the government can acquire the land at a price not less than twice the market value in urban areas. It also said that the compensation would not be less than six times the market price in rural areas.

The draft also suggested that under no circumstances should multi-cropped irrigated land be acquired.

Initially the bill was to be introduced in the monsoon session of parliament, but now it seems it may make it to the winter session. By Pooja Shali (ANI)