After giving the meeting of NITI Aayog in New Delhi a miss, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said here on Wednesday that the Centre should withdraw the land acquisition ordinance. “Our demand is that the land ordinance should be withdrawn,” she said. Ms. Banerjee, who addressed an administrative meeting in the district during the day, said the Centre should leave the issue to the States. Ms. Banerjee, who made repeated references to reduction of funding by the Centre to key schemes in the meeting, however made it clear that she did not boycott the NITI Aayog meeting. She clarified that the 100th administrative meeting called by the State government was decided well in advance and the invitation for NITI Aayog came only a few days ago. The Chief Minister said since the NITI Aayog meeting was called to discuss certain issues like land acquisition, she decided to give it a miss. She however made it clear that if a meeting was called to discuss the financial constraints which the States are facing at a NITI Aayog meeting, she would certainly attend it. The Chief Minister, who rose to political prominence over sustained movement against forcible acquisition at Singur and Nandigram, said West Bengal had come up with an alternative model for land acquisition where land would be acquired through direct purchase. There would be no scope forcible acquisition. “The land acquisition model in Bengal can be a model for the rest of the country,” Ms. Banerjee said, adding that her government had acquired 14,000 acres of land without any issues. The TMC has considerable seats in both Houses of Parliament and the party chairperson’s remarks come just ahead of the crucial monsoon session of Parliament scheduled to start next week. In an administrative meeting which lasted for over two hours, Ms Banerjee quizzed the entire range of bureaucrats and politicians present from ministers and secretaries to block development officers and even officers in charge of police stations.
