CPI-ML MLA Vinod Singh, who has been supporting the ruling JMM-Congress-RJD coalition in Jharkhand on crucial issues, now demanded the repeal of the land bank and land acquisition rules amendment done by the previous Raghubar Das-led BJP government.

Jharkhand finance minister Rameshwar Oraon and Congress president Keshav Mahato had last week written to chief minister Hemant Soren demanding immediate repeal of the land bank policy and Land Acquisition Act (Jharkhand) Amendment, 2017.

The Bagoda CPI-ML MLA, who also heads the provisional legislative committee, in a letter written on Monday to Soren demanded the calling of an urgent cabinet meeting and repeal of land bank policy and land acquisition law amendment.

The JMM, Congress, RJD and other Opposition parties had staged protests in 2018 against the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Jharkhand Amendment) Act 2017 and had announced repealing the Act after forming the government during the 2019 Assembly poll.

The then Das (currently Odisha governor) government in Jharkhand had brought an amendment to the 2013 Land Acquisition Act, through a bill passed in the Jharkhand Assembly in August 2017. The bill had done away with the impact assessment clause to allow government-sponsored developmental projects leading to protests among tribals. The gazette notification was issued in June 2018.

Similarly, there was resentment among tribal communities which was supported by Opposition parties, including the JMM and the Congress about the creation of land banks.

Right outfits alleged that the land bank had been created by Das was aimed at attracting investment in the state by allocating land to corporates for establishing industries during the “Momentum Jharkhand” — an investment promotion campaign between 2016 and 2018.

Vinod Singh in the letter claims that the previous BJP government had set up a land bank in 2016 under which 22 lakh acres of community and non-cultivated land of the state was identified and registered in the land bank. Under this, any company can at any time identify the land put in the land bank and demand its acquisition without the consent of the Gram Sabha.

“The consent of the gram sabhas was also not taken before putting the community land in the land bank," the letter states.