Despite a recovery, acreage of groundnut, sunflower and castorseed recorded a sharp decline this year due to low rainfall in major producing areas during the peak sowing season. The three major kharif oilseeds are sown for a month starting June 15 and harvested between October and December. Data collated by the ministry of agriculture showed the area under groundnut declined 28.37 per cent as on July 21. The sowing area under...

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government’s proposed land acquisition law, a politically sensitive and critical piece of legislation that could potentially remove a big roadblock to industrial investment, aims to address rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R), providing safeguards for both land owners and livelihood losers, while clearly defining the “public purpose” for which land can be acquired by the government. “This draft Bill seeks to balance the need for facilitating land acquisition...

For five years, they controlled the administration in impoverished Bellary, even flattened state boundary markers to excavate iron ore—while insisting they had no mining interests in Karnataka. Now, the reign of the rulers of the “Republic of Bellary”—as the unofficial influence of two Bharatiya Janata Party​ (BJP) ministers and a milk federation chief, collectively called the Reddy brothers—appears to be at an end. As the Supreme Court on Friday banned all mining...

-PTI   Aiming at ensuring better resettlement and rehabilitation, the draft Land Acquisition Bill proposes to set up a national monitoring body which will be regularly updated by the states. 'The Draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation &Resettlement Bill, 2011' also proposes to set up authorities both at central and state level for speedy disposal of issues related to land acquisition. "The central government shall constitute aNational Monitoring Committee for reviewing and monitoring the...

-The Hindu   There is no major difference in views between the West Bengal government and the Centre on the draft Land Acquisition and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill 2011 though there is need for clarity on some points, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said here on Sunday. Mr. Ramesh discussed the draft Bill with Debabrata Bandyopadhyay, a former bureaucrat, a day after he held talks on Saturday with West Bengal Chief...