Laxmi Hebbalkar, Congress MLA, Belagavi Rural
The BJP government, under pressure from the corporate sector, is introducing amendments to the Land Reforms Act and APMC Bill. The farm bills are detrimental to the interests of farmers. A major chunk of small and marginal farmers will be left on the streets when corporate firms and realtors buy their lands. Although farmers with small landholdings like one or two acres will get paid handsomely, they won’t be able to find livelihoods and will be ruined once they sell their land.
Bigger farmlands bought or taken over by big companies will be converted into farmhouses, resorts or recreational centres. Private players are so powerful in this country that they can easily buy fertile lands and also get the lands converted for commercial purposes later. Big companies can pay huge sums and buy land from agriculturists. Such takeover of fertile lands by private players will also have a disastrous effect on the development of the country.
The BJP is indulging in the politics of vengeance by resorting to such acts. It is getting institutions like Air India, Railways, IOC etc privatised only because Congress governments built them. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who opposed FDI and accused the Congress of selling the nation to foreign companies, is bent on selling all institutions of repute in the country, like Indian Railways to a Japanese company.