At a time when farmers’ organisations have stepped up their offensive against the proposed amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley put up a spirited defence of the changes in the law in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Terming the campaign against the amendments as “propaganda”, he said the country’s strategic installations were held up because of the clause for compulsory consent from 70 per cent of the affected people. These amendments were required because of the policies of the previous UPA government, he said, adding: “You have been in power five-seven times more than us. Don’t create an environment in this country where two words ‘infrastructure’ and ‘industry’ become bad words.”

Defective Act

He said the Act proposed by the UPA was defective and against national interest. “Signatures of 70 per cent of the (affected) villagers would be needed as their consent, as also the social impact assessment of installing the project. So, the information will be revealed and it will also reach Pakistan,” he said, adding that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar can explain to his predecessor AK Antony and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the hurdles his Ministry is facing in implementing several defence projects. “We corrected this,” Jaitley added.

Quoting a letter by former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma to the then Prime Minister, Jaitley said the present Act will impede the development of rural areas.

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