Members of the Kisan and Khet Mazdoor Cell of the Punjab Congress, on Monday, staged a protest in front of the office of the deputy commissioner at the district administrative complex (DAC) here against the new land acquisition Act .
The protesters, led by president of the cell and former minister Inderjit Singh Zira, jammed the traffic on the Ferozepur-Moga road outside the DAC causing inconvenience to the public for about two hours.
Meanwhile, ADC (G) Amit Kumar received a memorandum against the Act from the protesters following which the dharna by protesters was lifted.
The amendment to the land acquisition Act was anti-farmer as now the farmers' land can be acquired without their consent, alleged Zira in the memorandum.
He said during the previous Congress government, led by Manmohan Singh, land could not be acquired without the consent of farmers and demanded its rollback.
He said the NDA, in its election manifesto, had promised to implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission but it has failed to honour the promises so far.
The other demands of the cell included compensation of `5,000 per acre to the farmers on account of less rain and irrigating paddy with pumps and non-sanctioning of power connections, waiving of loans of farmers, early payment of pension and shagun scheme money, arrangements for education of children of farmers having less than 2.5 acres of land, saving youths from drugs, releasing of payments under the NREGA scheme, issuing BPL cards to only genuine beneficiaries after proper inquiry, adequate supply of urea fertiliser, rehabilitation of Punjab farmers in Gujarat, unemployment allowance to unemployed youths, etc.
{{/usCountry}}The other demands of the cell included compensation of `5,000 per acre to the farmers on account of less rain and irrigating paddy with pumps and non-sanctioning of power connections, waiving of loans of farmers, early payment of pension and shagun scheme money, arrangements for education of children of farmers having less than 2.5 acres of land, saving youths from drugs, releasing of payments under the NREGA scheme, issuing BPL cards to only genuine beneficiaries after proper inquiry, adequate supply of urea fertiliser, rehabilitation of Punjab farmers in Gujarat, unemployment allowance to unemployed youths, etc.
{{/usCountry}}Zira also accused the state government of backed out from fulfilling its promises.