Telling farmers he had learnt more from them than in the Lok Sabha,Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi today added a new dimension to the debate over land acquisition when he called for two laws,one for acquiring land for development works like roads,and the other for projects like townships. From cities like Delhi and Lucknow,we dont understand the ground reality. I have not learnt as much in the Lok Sabha as I have learnt from you, Rahul told farmers in Devaka village on the fourth morning of his padyatra,which will culminate in a Kisan Mahapanchayat in Aligarh tomorrow. And in Ghangholi,he told farmers that they were more knowledgeable than members of the Planning Commission. I have come here to understand the (land) issue. You have more knowledge than people in the Planning Commission. The government should come here,hold discussions with you before making laws. I am on this yatra to listen to your issues. There should be two laws for land acquisition. One for land acquired for development works like roads and the other for projects like townships. As farmers complained that their land was sold to developers even before they had signed the deeds,Rahul said there was a basic difference between the land acquisition laws of Haryana and UP Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda,son of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda,stood beside him. Haryana also has a land law,but you dont see firing or farmer unrest there like in UP. Baat kanoon ki nahin,niyat ki hai. Sarkar ke paas paise ki koi kami nahin,sarkar chahe to aapko bahut paise de sakti hai (It is not a question of law but of intent. The government does not lack money,it can give you plenty of money if it wishes to), he told a meeting in in Avankheda. Slamming the Mayawati government for its land policy,Rahul said: In UP,land is not given for roads,but to a person,a businessman. Many farmers told me that they had no idea their land had been given to builders. It dawned on them only when the builders turned up and took away the land. The recent changes in the UP land policy were made only after we put pressure on them following the Bhatta Parsaul incident. We can give you NREGA but only the state can implement it. Asked by a farmer why he had not been able to get the land acquisition law passed at the Centre despite his many promises,Rahul took a swipe at UPA partner and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who had objected to provisions in the Bill. Delhi has a coalition government. It takes time with such governments. We introduce a law,but someone,say from Bengal,will object to certain things. We in Delhi will give you a law to help you because in Delhi we are running an aam aadmi-ki-sarkar, he said.
