Land of poor and tribals would not be acquired without consulting with them:AICC President

Rourkela :6/2/19: AICC President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said Congress party if voted to power will bring out legislation the legitimate rights of poor tribal people over land and water resources.

Gandhi, addressing a public meeting in Rourkela today, said the land of poor and tribals would not be acquired without consulting with them.

The tribals would be paid four times the market price if their land is acquired for industrial purpose. land. In the event the acquired land could not be used for industrial purpose would be returned back to tribal landowners, he said while adding that Congress if voted to power will formulate legislation in this regard for protection rights of tribals across the country.

“We have already implemented it in Chattishgarh. The Congress-led government in Chattishgarh has already returned the land which was acquired for TATA Group’s project to tribals as no project had come up in five years,” he told the gathering.

The land owned by the tribal will be taken up for acquisition if they volunteer to give away their land, he said.

Highlighting the poor state of health service in Odisha, Gandhi recalled the unsavoury episode of tribal man Dana Majhi being forced to shoulder the corpse of his spouse and trekking ten kilo metres to cremate the body some time back as ambulance service had eluded him.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik kept mum and did not beg apology. If such an incident would have taken place in Congress-ruled State, I would have forced the concerned Chief Minister to tender apology, he said.