Days after she announced at a rally in Kolkata that agriculture and industries would flourish like sisters in West Bengal under her rule, Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is learnt to have had serious objections to the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007, and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2007, that were on the agenda of the Union Cabinet meeting held on Thursday. The meeting continued till late in the night and a decision on the two Bills may be taken on Friday.

According to sources in the Trinamool Congress, Banerjee is against the very core of the proposed Bills that talks about private developer:state ratio of 70:30. The Bills propose that the state would acquire 30 per cent of the land only after private developers buy 70 per cent of the land directly from the farmers. The Trinamool chief wants that the state government in no way should get involved in the acquisition process and that the entire land should be purchased directly by the private developers. She also wants that the Bills should contain penal provisions to check the use of money and muscle power by the developers to acquire land from the farmers.

The previous UPA government had got the Bills passed in the last session of the 14th Lok Sabha before the elections. The two Bills, however, have lapsed and must be re-introduced. The Congress has claimed that the amended Bills are historic in the sense that they ensure rehabilitation before acquisition and thereby protect the interests of the farmers and the tribals. The proposed Bills were prepared setting aside many important and unanimous recommendations of a Parliamentary Standing Committee.

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