Headlines
Land bill: Union minister attacks Rahul Gandhi with Vadra barb
Chandigarh, April 19
Union Minister Harsimrat
Kaur Badal on Sunday attacked the Congress party, saying it has no right
to raise the land bill issue since its leadership had remained mute
spectator to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra
acquiring land in various states at throwaway prices.
She reacted
within hours of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, at a rally in New
Delhi, criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government over
the new land acquisition bill.
"The Congress has lost the moral
right to question the land acquisition bill when it has remained mute
spectator to Robert Vadra's trick wherein his Rs.1 lakh (worth) company
purchased land of poor farmers. First Congress should ensure that the
poor farmers' land is given back to them from Vadra," Badal told media
on the sidelines of an event in Bathinda district in Punjab, 225 km from
here.
Vadra has been in the thick of controversies over land
purchase of hundreds of acres in Haryana and Rajasthan. Both states had
Congress governments when Vadra and his companies went on a land-buying
spree.
In certain cases, Vadra and his companies sold the land
to others, including realty companies, for huge profits running into
millions of rupees.
Calling the farmers' rally of the Congress on
the land bill a "flop show and mere drama", the food processing
minister said the Congress was only trying to mislead farmers.
"The
land acquisition bill is a farmer-friendly legislation that safeguards
the interests of farmers. Sadly enough, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi,
who is back after two months' vacationing, has run out of issues and
hence is heading this issueless campaign," she said.
She said
Punjab had the best land acquisition policy under which farmers are paid
30 to 40 percent more than the current market price.
"This is
the prime reason behind land acquisition going smoothly in the state for
the past 10 years and the Centre should replicate the same policy
elsewhere in India," Badal said.
She accused the erstwhile
Congress-led UPA government of hastily putting up the land acquisition
bill before the April-May 2014 general elections. She said the Modi
government had rectified the earlier bill and made it farmer-friendly.
"The
Congress does not want the farming community to prosper, the way it has
done in the 60 years of its rule over India," she said.