Khattar defends land ordinance

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar Saturday defended the ordinance on land acquisition promulgated recently by the central government, saying that it would only bring prosperity to farmers and lead to development of the country.

Asking people not to get carried away by the "false and misleading propaganda unleashed by some vested interests", he contended that the provisions of the ordinance had taken care of interests of farmers.

"We have to take forward the state by rising above partisan politics. I urge all to openly support the provisions made in favour of the farmers in the ordinance," Khattar said in a statement here.

"We need to understand that land would have to be acquired for providing drinking water facilities in villages, housing facility to the homeless poor and developing infrastructure for setting up industry," he said.

Claiming that the solatium money of farmers and land owners would be increased from 30 percent to 100 percent, Khattar said: "This decision is in favour of the farmers and land owners."

"I am shocked that some self-proclaimed leaders have been creating misleading propaganda regarding this ordinance," he said, claiming similar changes in the 2013 legislation and the draft rules notified for inviting objections by the government and now introduced in the ordinance had been demanded by then Congress-ruled state governments, be it Bhupinder Singh Hooda regime in Haryana and Prithviraj Chavan's government in Maharashtra.