The foreword — to the Draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 — that says “urbanisation is inevitable” (I.p.1) signifies danger. The Bill, if enacted in its present form, is likely to worsen, and not stop, displacement of tribal, Dalit and other backward communities. The Bill states: “The issue of who acquires land is less important than the process of land acquisition, compensation for land acquired and...

The flawed Bill on food security has not received the kind of publicity that the Lokpal Bill has, but that does not diminish its significance. “THIS government has divided everything and everyone. There are different cards for different sections of the poor. If my employer, taking pity on me, gives me an old television, I am not entitled to a yellow card [Below Poverty Line card]. My son who is...

-The Hindu   NCRB's 2009 report puts number of those abducted at 8,945 RTIs filed by an NGO in 2009 show an average of 60,000 children are reported missing annually in the country. However, the National Crime Records Bureau's (NCRB) annual report on Crime in India (2009) puts the number of abducted children at 8,945. Time lapse, insufficient information database and an ineffective tracking system minimises the missing children's chances of coming...

After forming syndicates, the liquor mafia in Nizamabad district is now targeting young workers of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ( MGNREGS) to rake in more moolah. Towards this end, the powerful mafia succeeded by roping in village development committees (VDCs) to help them open more belt shops in villages. Though it was illegal, a majority of these belt shops are being run in residential colonies, slum areas and...

Adding just 30 lakh people in the last 10 years, Delhi experienced its slowest population growth in almost a century. The decadal growth rate of 21% was less than half the figure of 47% for the previous decade. Census officials attributed this to a combination of declining fertility and mass slum demolitions. Provisional district-level data released by Varsha Joshi, director of census operations for NCT, on Monday said this is the...