Railway to review its land acquisition policy

With Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee having indicated her opposition to the proposed law on land acquisition, her Ministry today came out with a notification promising a comprehensive review of its land acquisition policy for rail projects.

The notification said "a comprehensive review of railway's land acquisition policy will be carried out and all existing land acquisition cases will be critically examined" within one month.

It said the review will be carried out to "ensure that forceful acquisition of land, including agriculture land, is completely avoided".

The focus of the review will be to facilitate complete transparency while acquiring or purchasing the land from the land owner, the notification said.

Banerjee had yesterday dismissed as false reports that the government was acquiring 2,500 acres of land for the Dedicated Freight Corridor in Uttar Pradesh and said Railways needed only 140 acres.

She has stated that if people are willing, only then the railway will purchase land from them and no force will be applied to acquire land for any railway project.