Lucknow, Aug 22 (IANS) A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited protesting farmers in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh district, Chief Minister Mayawati Sunday asked politicians “interested in the welfare of farmers” to seek amendments of the land acquisition act rather then visiting trouble spots.
Without taking Gandhi’s name, Mayawati, in in a statement read out by state cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh, said: “Those politicians who are busy undertaking trips to Aligarh with the obvious intent of politicising the issue, should ask the central government to amend the archaic Land Acquisition Act of 1894, in case they were truly interested in the well being of farmers.”

Farmers in Aligarh are seeking higher compensation for their land acquired for building the 165-km Noida-Agra Yamuna Expressway. Two farmers and a police constable were killed when police opened fire on protesting farmers in the area Aug 14.

Addressing a press conference on Mayawati’s behalf, Singh said that the chief minister has taken a decision not to acquire any land without a formal written agreement between the farmer and the government.

Asked about the fate of land acquired without the consent of farmers in Kushinagar, where the government proposed to develop an international airport for the benefit of a large number of visiting Buddhist devotees, Singh said: “Farmers would be free to take their land back wherever they felt they were given a raw deal or where a formal written agreement had not been arrived at”.