New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday said that no land should be acquired from farmers without their proper consent.

Speaking at a high level meeting of the chief ministers convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his official residence here, Badal strongly pleaded that land should not be acquired by government without consent of the farmers and land owners.

He urged the central government to adopt the Punjab land acquisition policy as a role model for national policy on the proposed Land Acquisition Bill, 2015.

The Shiromani Akali Dal, of which Badal is the chief patron, is one of the important constituents of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance central government.

Badal pointed out at the meeting that agriculture was a “losing profession resulting in heavy debt and farmer suicides”.

“In this grim scenario, the Land Acquisition Bill 2015 has caused great concern in the minds of farmers and farm labourers,” he said.

“The general perception in the minds of the farmers was that this bill was anti-farmer. I am of the view that land acquisition, whether for state or central projects, should be left to the state governments and this land should be acquired only with the consent of owners, solely for the public purposes,” Badal said.

He pointed out that Punjab’s land acquisition policy was suited to everyone’s interests with farmers and land owners getting market price for the acquired land plus displacement allowance. He added that land owners and farmers also got plots in authorised colonies under the land pooling plan for acquisition.