Mamata urges PM to repeal Land Acquistion Act

Kolkata, Apr 5 (UNI) Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to repeal the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 and scrap the Special Economic Zone(SEZ) policy.

'' We are not against industrialisation in the state but it should not be done at the cost of agriculture, where sixty per cent of the labour force is engaged, '' she said and appealed to Dr Singh to bring a Bill repealing the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 and scrapping the SEZ policy.

In a letter, she said this ''colonial'' Act was meaningless in the present time.

The Act smacked of imperial power, she opined and said carrying on with this Act was tantamount to following the imperial legacy.

Some state governments were misusing this Act for political purpose, she alleged.

She also said the draconian Act was totally ''anti-people and anti-poor''.

She urged the Prime Minister to constitute an expert group comprising jurists, social scientists, representatives of political parties and farming communities to look into the whole gamut of land acquisition.

UNI