The manner in which the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao bulldozed the revised land acquisition bill without allowing any discussion has left the opposition parties in high and dry.
While the BJP members are very much angry with the passage of the bill within 5 to 10 minutes of convening the special assembly session, the Congress leaders are agitated over the denial of an opportunity for a debate.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has strongly condemned the manner in which the Telangana Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement bill (Telangana Amendment Act, 2016) was passed by adopting three amendments in the special session.
Uttam criticised the haste with which amendments were adopted and entire proceedings of special session were over in less than 10 minutes.
He said Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao did not even come to the House to facilitate debate on such an important issue.
Condemning the TRS Government for not accepting Congress party's demand that the amendments to LA Bill should be preceded by a debate on farmers' issues, he said Congress members were not allowed to speak on the subject.
He announced that the Congress party would take up the fight to Delhi and meet President of India Pranab Mukherjee within a week requesting him to reject the Bill. He said the amended Bill was detrimental to the interest of farmers in the State.
He said that the Law Department should have gone through the amendments with a fine tooth comb, especially regarding the requirement of Social Impact Assessment (SIA). However, he said the Social Impact Assessment was given a complete miss in the amended bill.
"Social Impact Assessment and Food Security provisions are primordial and foundational to the very essence of the Land Acquisition Act 2013 and they cannot be done away with," he said.
