Farmers have to face bullets in UP: Rahul

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi yesterday accused the Uttar Pradesh government of giving the land of “lakhs of farmers” to builders and said the farmers had to face bullets if they demanded their rights.Addressing a massive farmers’ rally or ‘kisan mahapanchayat’ at Numaish Maidan in Aligarh, Gandhi compared the land acquisition policy of Congress-ruled Haryana with that of the Uttar Pradesh government and said farmers in Uttar Pradesh were not even informed when their lands were acquired. “Land of lakhs of farmers is being taken in Uttar Pradesh and being given to builders. When farmers say give us our rights, they have to face bullets,” Gandhi said. Referring to his visit to Tappal last year and to Bhatta-Parsaul villages of Greater Noida in May, Gandhi said protesting farmers had to face police bullets. “The painful thing is that the farmers were not doing anything wrong, they were only seeking their rights. The police fired at them, killed them,” he said.Gandhi said he had not met any farmer or labourer who was against development. “They want proper money for their land. They are not against development or against roads,” Gandhi said, and added that land was taken from farmers for constructing golf courses.He said the central government will try to bring in a land acquisition bill in the interest of farmers.“We will try our best to give such a law in Lok Sabha that is in the interest of farmers, labourers,” he said.In Bangalore, Law Minister Veerappa Moily said the central government would secure a balance between farmers’ interests and development through a new legislation.The bill is being readied and may be introduced in parliament during its monsoon session starting on August 1, Moily said.The central government is bringing the new legislation following protests in states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Karnataka against acquisition of farm lands for industries or infrastructure projects and in some instances for residential or commercial complexes.Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh denied that Gandhi’s grand rally for farmers in Uttar Pradesh was a prelude to the party’s campaign for the state assembly elections.Singh said the aim of the rally was the “prosperity of farmers.”“Elections are not the aim of this mahapanchayat, the aim is prosperity and happiness of farmers,” he said.Also yesterday, the Bharatiya Janata Party accused the Uttar Pradesh government of causing a loss of Rs400bn by “scandalous land allotments” in Noida during last one year, and demanded a court-monitored probe.“It’s surprising and shocking that the Mayawati government handed over the lands with a total market price of Rs60,000 crore to some hand-picked builders for just Rs19,490 crore. All such scandalous allotments were made in 2010-2011 at the behest of the chief minister,” BJP national secretary Kirit Somaiya said.“We have decided to meet President Pratibha Patil to seek a thorough probe into the allotments. We want the central government to intervene in the matter, and an SIT (special investigation team) inquiry be ordered at the earliest. We also demand that the SIT inquiry should proceed under the monitoring of the court,” he said.The BJP alleged that the land acquired by the state government for public purposes was handed over to select builders.In a related development, police arrested farmer leader Manveer Singh Tewatia from New Delhi’s Tilak Bridge area, allegedly for instigating farmers’ violence in Bhatta-Parsaul in May. He caught by the Uttar Pradesh police after a 3km chase through the city