-The Business Standard It will make the coercive powers of the land acquisition law irrelevant, though including it in the central Bill would be unconstitutional The proposal to amend the central Land Acquisition Bill to provide for leasing of land rather than acquiring it is just not constitutionally feasible. Land is a state subject and the Centre cannot legislate on leasing at all. But as an idea it is great and should...

-The Hindu     When displaced by development projects, many migrate to cities as servants, some are lured into prostitution Palakkad: A study conducted by Centre for Development Studies (CDS) on impact of development on tribal people has found that tribal women are the worst sufferers in this process of change. The study, titled ‘Withering Valli: Alienation, degradation and enslavement of tribal women in Attappady' and undertaken along with the Kerala Research Programme on Local...

-Down to Earth Inadequate sewage treatment and disposal in the national capital territory is contaminating city's groundwater Delhi residents who depend on groundwater for their drinking water needs be warned. The latest data of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) shows that groundwater samples taken from observation wells in the national capital are getting contaminated because of their unhygienic catchments and untreated sewage, which is discharged in the open and into drains,...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India tabled the second performance audit of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Parliament on Tuesday. The first performance audit was undertaken in 2007-08. The period of coverage of the first audit was February 2006 to March 2007. The present performance audit of the implementation of MGNREGA was taken up in response to a request from the ministry...

-PTI Implementation of government's flagship scheme MNREGA has come under flak from CAG on various counts, including diversion of funds and impermissible works undertaken to the tune of about Rs 2,252 crore. The audit undertaken by the Comptroller and Auditor General of the programme launched by the Rural Development Ministry in 2006 found that works amounting to around Rs 4,070 crore were incomplete even after one to five years of launching. The CAG...