Mamata first CM to raise red flag on land ordinance

Claiming that India under the Narendra Modi government was going through a phase worse than the Emergency in the 1970s, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said her government will not implement the proposed amendments in the Land Acquisition Act.

Claiming that India under the Narendra Modi government was going through a phase worse than the Emergency in the 1970s, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said her government will not implement the proposed amendments in the Land Acquisition Act. “They will have to acquire land over my dead body,” the Trinamool Congress chief declared on Tuesday.

On Monday, the cabinet made it easier to acquire land in five key sectors including security and defence, infrastructure, power and affordable housing by doing away with a clause that required consent of 80% of landowners.

“They are trying to take away land by force. They are also using CBI and ED to inject fear in us,” said the CM, who has running battles with the NDA.

Mamata announced that TMC supporters will burn symbolic ‘copies’ of the ‘black ordinance’ at every corner of the state on Wednesday. A policy of no acquisition of land for any industrial/infrastructure purpose has been the cornerstone of Mamata’s policy in West Bengal.