RLD flays PPP model in land acquisition

Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) President and former Union Minister Ajit Singh today flayed the public-private partnership (PPP) model in development projects involving land acquisition.

He said PPP was being misused to take over the land of farmers at cheap prices and hand over the same to private developers on lease. “The lease is normally of 99 years, but who shall be there to reclaim the land after the expiry of lease period,” he told Business Standard. Singh maintained that farmers were the owners of land and had every right to fix the price of their land. Commenting on the Yamuna Expressway project in western Uttar Pradesh, he said the farmers were not against the expressway per se, but the land was being acquired for other purposes under the project. “Thousands of acres of land have been notified, which is not for expressway alone,” he claimed. He demanded the farmers be paid better compensation for their land and be rehabilitated. “The provisions of Land Acquisition Act, 1894 are being misused not only in UP, but other states as well by diluting the essence of public purpose enshrined in the Act.”