Date:07/04/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/04/07/stories/2007040707291200.htm

National

Scrap Land Acquisition Act: Mamata

`West Bengal Government is misusing legal provision'

Kolkata: Describing the Centre's decision on Special Economic Zones (SEZ) as an attempt to mislead the people on the eve of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday demanded that the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 be scrapped first.

``We demand that the Land Acquisition Act should be scrapped, or else State Governments will misuse it to acquire land for private purposes,'' Ms. Banerjee told presspersons here.

``The Empowered Group of Ministers' (EGoM) decision on SEZs is aimed at misleading the people on the eve of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections,'' she alleged.

The West Bengal Government was misusing the legal provision for acquisition of land for private purposes, Ms. Banerjee claimed. Referring to the approval of 83 SEZs in the country, she said that the Centre ``should not to play with fire and scrap all SEZs''.