New Delhi: Rejecting the Left Front`s
charge that Railways was acquiring land forcibly, Railway
Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said her department will not
acquire land "forcibly" and will purchase them if people come
forward to sell.
"If there is a dispute we will not acquire forcibly. If
the people give their land then we will purchase it," she told
reporters here.
Banerjee also accused the Left Front in West Bengal of
"misleading the people" on the issue and assured that the
Railways will never acquire land forcibly.
On the Dedicated Freight Corridor, she said the JICA loan
to the project was sanctioned when Lalu Prasad was the Railway
Minister during the previous UPA tenure which was supported by
the Left.
She CPI(M) MP Basudev Acharya was the Chairman of the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways.
"That time, they (Left) did not oppose it. Now, they are
opposing it," she said.
She dismissed as false reports that the government was
acquiring 2,500 acres of land for the Dedicated Freight
Corridor in Uttar Pradesh and said Railways need only 140
acres.
Bureau Report
