Union Minister for Transport Nitin Gadkari Union Minister for Transport Nitin Gadkari

Accusing Congress president Sonia Gandhi of “misleading” the country and the party-led UPA of indulging in populist measures to lure voters without taking the country’s interests into account, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari Monday asked her to “think beyond politics” for the interest of the nation.

Gadkari challenged Sonia for an open debate over the land bill, arguing democracy demands debate over welfare measures and leaders should not shy away from it.

Responding to the Congress chief’s letter on Land Acquisition Bill, Gadkari, the government’s point person for evolving a consensus on the controversial legislation, said that not a single acre of land was acquired under the land acquisition bill passed by the UPA in 2013 for irrigation and other rural and social infrastructure projects and farmers remained dependent on rain all the time.

“Congress governments in Maharashtra, Haryana and Assam had submitted that such a provision would derail irrigation schemes and housing projects for the poor as they take longer than five years for completion… Soniaji, due to the policies of your government farmers always depended on rain and kept waiting for official relief. We have not done away with social impact assessment but given states the right for it,” Gadkari said adding that most land acquisition done by states is for irrigation.

“Under your land law, government and private firms which are allocated coal blocks can acquire thousands of acres of land with doing social impact assessment but states would have to go through this complex exercise if they need one acre of land for a school or hospital and rural road,” Gadkari wrote. “Will it be proper? The Maharashtra CM belonging to your party had then sought that such a bill be studied by a group of CMs. But UPA did not find it appropriate to evolve a consensus among its own CMs,” the letter said.

Criticising the NDA government for being “blatantly anti-farmer and anti-poor”, Gandhi had last week written to Gadkari saying her party will never endorse any law “that will break the backbone of this nation”.

The minister also alleged that the Congress-led government created a system to help the big firms. Rejecting the charges that the NDA’s version of the land bill was anti-farmer Gadkari said: “Your government came out with subsidy programmes to get votes of farmers and rural youth. Our government’s law is in the interest of villages, poor, farmers and labourers.”

(PTI inputs)

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