Jamshedpur, March 19: Congress supporters held up traffic on the DC office road on Thursday to protest against the amendment to the Land Acquisition Act 2013.
Party workers raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said bill was draconian and reflective of the British style of administration. Although traffic on the busy stretch was held up, it did draw public attention.
Senior Congress leader SRA Rizwi Chabban, said the bill passed by the government had kindled a spark among farmers, who have voiced their opposition to it. He said the method adopted by the Centre was against established democratic norms and hence anti-people.
He said as farmers become aware of the amendments to the Act, they will come out in open as it was an attempt to benefit private players and the corporate lobby. With many checks and balances in the original Act being diluted, he said there was no provision for social impact assessment and environment impact assessment, and hence had to be opposed.
The Congress activists later in the day submitted a memorandum addressed to President, Pranab Mukherjee through the East Singhbhum deputy commissioner.
�We have submitted the memorandum at district collectorate and requested the President to take this issue which is against poor tribals. The current government has violated norms of CNT Act and SPT Act and serving interest of capitalists,� said Congress OBC cell state chairman, Manoj Yadav.
He asked people to put pressure on the Narendra Modi government to withdraw the relevant bill. He described the bill as a “black law”, which was against the interests of farmers.”I and my party have been opposing this black law and I appeal to party workers and leaders to launch a campaign against it to safeguard farmers’ interests,” he said.
Later the workers headed by Congress OBC cell state chairman, Manoj Yadav handed over a memorandum to DC addressed to President of India. On the occasion Anandmay Patra, Akhilesh Singh Yadav, Rajesh Kumar Jha, Pavan Kumar Jha, Anand Bihari Dubey, Manoj Kumar, Ramashray Prasad, Sardar Mahendar Singh, Rakesh Kumar Tiwary, Jyotish Yadav, Rajnish Singh, Paritosh Singh, Pavan tiwary, Jitendra Singh and others were present.
