Congress president Rahul Gandhi has written to the chief ministers in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to undo changes to the land acquisition law made by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments in the states. Gandhi wrote to Bhupesh Baghel, Ashok Gehlot and Kamal Nath asking them to ensure that rights of the underprivileged were protected by undoing the revisions made to land acquisition law and related regulations.
According to a Business Standard report, regarding the Land Acquisition Act, Gandhi reportedly wrote, “Previous government has issued notification/rules/guidelines/policy designed to dilute the rights conferred under the UPA’s 2013 Land Acquisition Act. I hope you would take steps for withdrawal of all such instruments, so as to ensure implementation of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 in letter and spirit.”
In another letter, Gandhi spoke about the Forest Rights Act and the ongoing challenge to the validity of the Act before the Supreme Court, “Given the significance of the case, I request you to ensure competent legal representation for the above-mentioned matter and to review the implementation of the Act.”
“It is equally important to reopen the rejected cases and provide assistance to claimants to secure their rights under FRA. We must honour the people’s mandate by effectively implementing the Forest Rights Act,” the Congress president reportedly said.
Gandhi’s intervention marks a significant development at a time when the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre has provided for next-to-none legal assistance towards protecting the rights of tribals under the Act. The report says that Gandhi “alleged that the absence of central government lawyers in the Supreme Court when the petitioners asked for mass-scale evictions betrayed the BJP’s intention to drive out lakhs of tribals and poor farmers from forests.”