Opposition to land bill not political: Jairam Ramesh

April 17, 2015 18:48

Former environment minister and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said his party was not opposing the land bill for the sake of being an opposition and that the issue was just not a political one. He dismissed the claims of the NDA government regarding the consent and social impact assessment clauses for defence and national security projects in the new amended land bill.

"The land bill of 2013 which was adopted by Congress-led UPA government was comprehensive while the new amendments proposed by the BJP government are in no way beneficial to the farmers and indeed it is 'anti-farmer'," Ramesh said.

He said the NDA government was lying on amendments and claimed that there was no consent clause, social impact assessment clause for defence and national security projects, which were given special status in the 2013 bill of the UPA.

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