Telangana clears land acquisition bill amidst protests

Amidst protests by the opposition parties like Congress, TDP and BJP, the Telangana Assembly passed a controversial bill on land acquisition, which is expected to help distribute fair compensation to the land owners. As per the report, the Telangana Legislative Affairs Minister, T Harish Rao, tabled the bill in the assembly at the behest of the Telangana government led by K Chandrasekhar Rao, the Telangana Chief Minister. While speaking in the assembly, he claimed that the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Telangana Amendment) bill is applicable to the government projects only. He added that the private projects would come under the 2013 parliament act on land acquisition in which it offered fair compensation and transparency in such deals. Meanwhile, a congress MLA questioned the right of the state assembly to make an amendment over the parliament act. Responding to the allegation, the Telangana supremo retorted that the act made by the congress party during 2013 did not address actual problem and ground reality. Pointing out a reality that several states had already made such amendments, he asserted that the state assembly has rights to make law. When the congress MLAs demanded a legal scrutiny over the issue, the BJP MLAs asked the chair to refer it to a committee. At the same time, the TDP MLAs strongly criticised the bill saying the bill was being passed with retrospective effect. However, earlier also, there were allegations that the 2013 land amendment bill did not meet actual result, address ground reality, and help the land owners. Now, with this amendment, the Telangana government openly says that the need and concerns of the actual land owners were not met. Then, who is benefitted from the 2013 land acquisition law?

Vignesh

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