Mamata Banerjee?s no-show at a crucial meeting to discuss the proposed amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, reveals not just her opposition to a Bill of this nature, but also her deteriorating relationship with the Congress.
Though the railway minister?s staff had said Banerjee had not been ?properly intimated? about the time of the meeting, sources close to the development say that she has been miffed with the Congress leadership for sometime. ?It has been brewing for sometime, and started with the local body elections in Siliguri, in which the Congress and the CPI(M) teamed up to form the municipal government, leaving the actual Congress ally, the Trinamool Congress, out in the cold,? said a source.
?Rahul Gandhi?s statements about alliances not being forged at the cost of self respect, also reflects the fraught relationship between the two parties in the state,? added a senior Trinamool Congress leader. ?Lately, however, more provocation has been added to the mix. Pranab babu shared the dias with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at a function in New Town in Kolkata while Didi had boycotted the function. Then, Rs 700 crore was immediately rushed to the state for drought relief in 11 districts,? he said, adding, ?Didi?s contention is that the CPI(M) is a master at diverting public funds to political use, through panchayats controlled by the local administration.?
Additional funds worth Rs 1,400 crore, under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), have also been sent to West Bengal.
Sources say finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will seek a meeting with Mamata Banerjee to mollify the miffed ally. ?Whatever Mamata Banerjee?s reservations on the Bill as such, it is a fact that she is obfuscating any move on the Bill due to a mixture of genuine issues and angry pride. This is par for the course,? said a senior Congress leader who is close to the developments.
?Mamata Banerjee?s main objections are with regard to the state acquisition of land for private parties, even the 30% that is being talked of in the Bill. She also wants the clause of rehabilitation before eviction put in the bill as well as an undertaking that no forcible land acquisition would take place,? said a source close to Banerjee.
For the Centre, clauses like the dilution of the break up of 70:30 in land acquisition are difficult to agree to. It has, instead, spoken of an annuity clause in the pricing of land.