Bangalore : Under pressure from religious leaders, farmers and opposition parties, the Karnataka government has decided to shelve acquisition of over 5,000 acres of land for two major industrial projects in Mangalore and Gadag districts. On Tuesday, the government gave in to a 24-hour ultimatum issued by the seer of Udupi Pejawar Mutt, Visvesha Thirtha, to withdraw a move to acquire 2,035 acres of land for an SEZ in Mangalore. On Wednesday,...

The land problem in Singur was a turning point in the political fortunes of both the Left Front and the Trinamul Congress. The story is far from complete, and the legal twists and turns between Mamata Banerjee and the house of Tata could unfold in surprising ways. The issue of adequate compensation for farmers, who had to part with their land, is still an open question to which many well...

In his fields, Badhia Naval Singh , a farmer tilling 8 bighas of land in the Bagli tehsil in Madhya Pradesh, has been seeing something strange for a while now. Earlier, if he pulLED out a tuft of grass, he would see earthworms . "Ab woh dikhna bandh ho gaye hain (they don't show up any longer)," says the 45-yearold . Also, he says, when he ploughed earlier, the soil...

Plans to hold an Asia level conference in Delhi in November The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), which plans to form an Asia-level alliance to give momentum to the street vendor movement in different parts of the continent, is planning to hold an Asia-level conference in Delhi in November later this year. The organisation hopes the Union Housing and Urban Poverty Ministry will be a key partner for this...

When Sujatha’s husband learned that she had conceived just five months after they got married, he became agitated over what he calLED her "ill-timed pregnancy". To worsen her husband’s anxiety, a test to determine the sex of the foetus showed she was carrying a girl. Sujatha, a public school teacher, and her husband, a civil engineer – who asked that their full names be withheld – are from well-off and educated...