'Misconceptions' on Land Acquisition Bill harming nation: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said misconceptions are being spread by opposition parties on the Land Acquisition Bill, and this harming national interest.

"Lies are being spread about the government's Land Acquisition Bill that it does not talk about forests or tribal people. I feel that it might be a small issue for you to mislead someone. This might be your political principles, but it will lead to a huge loss for the country," Prime Minister Modi said in his inaugural address at the conference of state environment and forests ministers.

"This practice of misleading people of the nation must end. There can be a debate based on facts, there can be differences of opinion," he added.

Silencing his critics, Prime Minister Modi further said that the nation cannot be run on the basis of lies.

"There is no power in the truth that you want to speak. So, you continue to speak lies. But the nation cannot run on the basis of lies," he said.

On Sunday, Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu had alleged that the Congress and its allies did not want the nation's growth and were indulging in false propaganda on the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015.

Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad, Naidu said the NDA Government was not ready to oblige the Congress, which wants the 'development holiday' to be extended.

He appealed to all the political parties not to hinder the country's progress and urged them not to make it a political issue.

Naidu said injustice would have been done to farmers had the Land Acquisition Ordinance not been re-promulgated.

The Urban Development Minister further said the Bill would be brought before the Parliament again and expressed confidence that it would be passed in both the houses.