The Revenue Department of the Gujarat government has issued primary notifications for acquiring land in 165 cases in the state under section 11 of the latest amended land acquisition law for the ambitious Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project. With the issuance of the notifications, owners of the land, which has been earmarked for acquisition, cannot make any monetary deal on it — they can neither sell nor mortgage their land.
The BJP-led government’s decision has evoked strong criticism from the farmers’ outfits which have threatened to launch a massive stir against land acquisition. The BJP-led government in the state has already made it clear that it wants to complete the land acquisition process for the project — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project, by December this year. The Prime Minister’s Office is directly supervising the progress in the project.