BHUBANESWAR: In a sign of growing antagonism between the BJD and the BJP, the regional outfit on Sunday decided to oppose the Land Acquisition Bill proposed by the Centre during the monsoon session of Parliament beginning July 21 unless its demand for making land losers stakeholders in projects was accepted.
This was decided at a meeting of BJD Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at Naveen Nivas here.
Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Leader of BJD Parliamentary Party in Lok Sabha Bhartruhari Mahtab said that the stand of the party from the beginning was inclusion of land losers as partners in the projects. The party will reiterate the demand, he said.
The BJD, however, decided not to target any individual in the Vyapam scam. “We are not going to join the chorus demanding resignations of ministers,” Mahtab said and added that the issue is about how corrupt the system has become. The BJD will demand a free and fair investigation and measures to correct the system, he said.
The decision of Posco to suspend its Odisha operations will be raised by the BJD MPs. The party will demand a clarification from the Centre about what transpired between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Posco chairman Kwon Oh Joon during their meeting at Seoul when the former visited South Korea, he said.
Besides, cut in the allocation for different schemes will also be raised, he said.
Out of a total of 20 Lok Sabha members and seven Rajya Sabha members, four __ Kalpataru Das, Sarojini Hembram, Anubhav Mohanty and Sidhant Mohapatra __ were absent in the meeting. Rajya Sabha member Baishnab Parida, however, left Naveen Nivas before the meeting. “I had taken permission from the Chief Minister to attend the Bhasa Sammilani meeting,” he said.