Centre using smokescreen of deception: Jairam

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has targeted the central government for using "smokescreen of deception" reflected in the land acquisition bill, and said that in contrast, the UPA regime was "second to none" in promoting rural development.

Ramesh also said the Congress "never objected to a debate or shied away from a public discourse" as alleged by union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in his March 30 letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

In a letter to Gadkari on Tuesday, former rural development minister Ramesh defended the Land Acquisition Act 2013 brought by the erstwhile UPA government.

"We stand by the 2013 law as do millions of farmers. The question is can you survive without the smokescreen of deception which seems to be the mainstay of this government," Ramesh said.

Earlier, Gadkari blamed the preceding dispensation for the present government's failure to acquire land for "electricity, irrigation, rural roads and schools".

Ramesh, however, got back to the union minister saying: "Neither consent nor social impact assessment is required for acquisition for electricity, irrigation and national highways.

"Given that you still failed on these issues... in your first year shows... an incompetence in administration and... ignorance of the law you now seek to amend."

He deplored the government's sensibility to believe that "for any development to take place it has to rely solely on forcible acquisition".

The former minister cited the number of rural roads built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna as well as employment generated under MGNREGA to counter the claim that the UPA "focussed more on populist schemes than on protecting rural interests".

"Our record when it comes to safeguarding and promoting rural development is second to none," he added.

Refuting the charge that the UPA "exempted large scale acquisitions but created hurdles for state governments", the Congress leader described it as "ludicrous assumption", because if it were "true, the law would not have received the kind of criticism it did from your friends in industry."

"Your resort to political posturing does not change the fact that the law was designed to balance genuine public interest against arbitrary acquisitions," Ramesh said in the five-page letter.

Asking the government to present an account of progress promised to people, Ramesh urged Gadkari to stop disparaging the previous regime and instead "reflect more on the government you and your colleagues are running".

The two letters come days after Gandhi wrote to Gadkari making it clear that her party won't support the bill pending in the Rajya Sabha to replace the ordinance already in place amending the 2013 act, and accused the government of "bending over backwards" to favour select industrialists.