New land acquisition law to protect farmers likely

The United Progressive Alliance government is working towards re-introducing the Land Acquisition Bill in Parliament in the Winter Session to ensure the protection of farmers' interests who play an important positive role in food security, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

He was responding to an impromptu discussion on the death of three farmers in Mathura and Aligarh districts in violence to secure better compensation for land acquired by the Uttar Pradesh government for a highway expressway from Noida, a Delhi suburb, to Agra.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was agitated that police did not even register a case of deaths caused by unprovoked police firing on the agitating farmers while others sought an inquiry and arrest of the senior police officers present at the time of the firing, expressing concern at forcible acquisition of land from farmers in not only Uttar Pradesh but in many states.