GUWAHATI, March 28 � Responding to the call given by the All India Bank Employees� Association, the bank employees of Guwahati, under the banner of the Assam Provincial Bank Employees� Association, staged a demonstration against the proposed amendments to the Land Acquisition Bill, in front of the Industrial Co-operative Bank Ltd here today, a press release issued here said.
Addressing the bank employees during the demonstration, Dilip Kr Sarma, general secretary of the APBEA, lambasted the Land Acquisition Bill and said the proposed Bill will snatch away the basic rights of the farmers. The proposed Bill will abolish the fundamental rights of the farmers which were incorporated in the Land Acquisition Act 1894 by the British. The unamended Act of 1894, under Section 2 and 3(A), had provided for �consent of the farmers and others� before the government takes away a plot of land for any social purpose. But the amendments that have been made by the present government seek to abolish these two important clauses of the unamended Land Act of 1894, thus allowing the government to have free access to the land for forcibly taking it over under any pretext, he alleged.
He further claimed that the Centre is more interested in favouring the investors, particularly the corporates, at the cost of farmers and at the cost of the food security of the nation. Sarma termed the proposed law as �draconian and anti-farmer�, the press release further stated.
