Daily News Magazine from India & around the world.

The Government swung into action to ready the land acquisition law that is in the making for the past five years after Sonia Gandhi last week stressed its urgency to protect farmers and fertile land, but Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee now wants not to hurry with it.

It is the same, Mamata who has been harping on replacement of the British legacy of the Land Acquisition Act of 1984 with a pro- people land law, but she now wants a bill for the purpose proposed to be brought in the upcoming Parliament session sent to a standing committee. Since she may not be attending the Cabinet meetings in near future, she got in touch with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Kolkata on Sunday to suggest that the new law should not be enacted until the West Bengal elections are over next year.

A Kolkata daily quoted a Trinamool minister without identifying him state: " Given the sensitivity attached to land acquisition in Bengal, we don't want to take any risk during the Assembly polls. So it is better if the bill is sent to a standing committee. By the time the committee gives its opinion on the bill, our Assembly polls will be over."