Trinamool Congress supporters protest against the proposed amendments to Land Acquisition Act in Kolkata yesterday.
The Trinamool Congress, which has vowed not to implement the proposed amendments in the Land Acquisition Act, took out rallies across West Bengal yesterday, protesting the “black ordinance” approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet.
“The ordinance has been approved without any consultations with the chief ministers of the states. The ordinance has been cleared undemocratically and we will never allow this draconian law to be implemented in Bengal,” Trinamool trade union leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said.
Party activists took out rallies in Kolkata as well as in other districts of the state, including North 24-Parganas and Birbhum. They burnt effigies of the prime minister as well as copies of the “black ordinance.”
Accusing the central government of “bulldozing” democracy, Trinamool supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asserted that her government would not implement the proposed amendments in the Land Acquisition Act.
“As long as I am alive, I will never allow any forcible acquisition of land. They will have to acquire land only on my dead body,” Banerjee said on Tuesday, urging the people to burn the “black ordinance” that was approved by the federal cabinet on Monday.
The amendment to the Land Acquisition Act was approved to remove “procedural difficulties” in acquiring land for national projects and to “further strengthen” provisions concerning “affected families.”
“Trinamool and Mamata Banerjee will never allow such a draconian law to be implemented in Bengal. We will continue to protest against the Centre’s attack on democracy,” Chattopadhyay, leading a rally in Kolkata, said.