-Outlook The NDA seems bent on subverting the RTI Act. Is the slow dismembering of the CIC part of the plan? We Have No Recall For the first time since its inception, CIC's functions expropriated by the govt A search committee set up to appoint a new CIC chief says meeting details cannot be revealed; "highly confidential" RTI appeals pertaining to prime depts...

-PTI New Delhi: Farmers organisations, including BKU, on Wednesday staged a massive protest, demanding that Centre must take assent of 100 per cent farmers before land acquisition and the same should be done only for public purposes. Farmers gathered in droves at Jantar Mantar in the heart of the national capital under the banner of various farmer unions affiliated to India Coordination Committee of Farmers Movement (AICCFM). "Government introduced these amendments in the...

-The Indian Express With the land acquisition ordinance set to lapse on April 5 and a united opposition blocking the amendment bill in the Rajya Sabha, the government is set to prorogue parliament after March 20 to facilitate re-promulgation of the ordinance. While the budget session, which began on February 20, is set to continue till May 8, a month-long recess is scheduled from March 20 to April 20. But the government...

-The Hindu Nine amendments have been adopted. The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015, popularly known as the land bill, was adopted by the Lok Sabha after debating it for two days. Congress and Biju Janata Dal walked out ahead of the voting, to protest the removal of a clause that makes it mandatory to get farmers' consent prior to the acquisition of land...

-The Indian Express The Bharat Krishak Samaj (BSK) has long urged the merger of the agriculture ministry with the water resources and rural development ministries, in the interests of better coordination. With cooperative federalism gaining currency as an idea, that might just become possible. Now, the panchayati raj and food processing ministries could join the club, leaving agriculture, for all practical purposes, to the states, as envisaged by the Constitution. But...