New land acquisition bill will protect farmers' interests: Min

Union Minister Birender Singh today said the new land bill will protect the interests of farmers and accused Opposition parties of spreading rumours against the government.
"The amendments being made in the Land Acquisition Act will protect the interests of farmers at every level. Some of the Opposition parties are spreading rumours that NDA government is anti-farmer which is completely wrong," Singh told reporters here today.
Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP, said there were many "flaws" in the Land Acquisition Act of the previous UPA government which are being rectified.
"Most of the Congress led governments had demanded some major amendments in the bill brought by the then UPA government but it did not take notice," the Union Rural Development Minister said.

Singh, who left Congress and joined BJP last year, accused the UPA government of bringing the Land Acquisition Act to gain political benefit in Lok Sabha elections where it failed completely.
Referring to Rail budget, he said the Railway Minister had announced to double the Mathura-Palwal, Rohtak-Bhiwani and Mohri-Shambhu rail track which would benefit the people of Haryana.

He said besides, around 3 dozen railway overbridges and underbridges had been sanctioned for Haryana in the budget.
Criticising Congress, Singh said the party was not a cadre based party and it was the reason that it lost the mass support in the country.

When asked whether he still wanted to be the Chief Minister of Haryana, he said that being a Union Minister he had three times more budget than any state.