Panaji, April 10 (IANS): Not a single farmer has committed suicide because of the amended Land Acquisition law, union Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday, alleging that only those whose land was not being acquired by the govenrment were crying foul.

He was speaking to reporters here in Panaji, after inaugurating a series of infrastructure projects being undertaken under the aegis of his ministry in several parts of the state.

"Because of the land acquisition law not a single farmer has committed suicide. In the rural sector we have made provisions for four times the compensation and twice the compensation in the urban areas. No one has committed suicide because of this," Gadkari said, to queries if there was an increase in the number of farmer suicides, after the land law were amended.

The minister also suggested that the clamour against the legislation was being orchestrated only by those who did not benefit from it.

"Those whose lands are being acquired are happy, because are getting four times the value (of land)," he said, claiming that many landholders including his own personal assistant had even volunteered to offer more land for acquisition, in view of the healthy compensation which was being awarded by the government under the amended provisions of the legislation.