The Supreme Court on Monday told the government to dump the archaic Land Acquisition Act to prevent Nandigram-like violent protests in every state, sounding the warning that it would step in to safeguard public interest if the authorities failed to do the needful. "The perspective has to change. The public purpose clause in the 1894 Act must go. If the government does not do it, then this court has to act....

-PTI   To step in to prevent “more Nandigrams” The Supreme Court on Monday criticised the Uttar Pradesh government for acquiring prime agricultural land to build luxury flats in Greater Noida and questioned the invoking of an urgency clause that bars farmers from raising objections. It noted it would step in to prevent “more Nandigrams.” “Whose residential use are these flats for? Who is building them? What are the prices? We want to...

The episodes of violence in land acquisition by the government, as witnessed recently in Bhatta-Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh and in other states earlier, occur because patterns of violence are inbuilt into the process. Despite a bill pending in Parliament since 2007, there has been little effort by political parties to evolve a consensus on acquisition of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. The law as at present and also the provisions...

-The Telegraph   Mamata Banerjee today announced that her government would not acquire land at New Town in Rajarhat anymore. “There will be no further acquisition of land in Rajarhat-New Town,” the chief minister said this evening after a meeting with housing minister Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. Labour minister Purnendu Bose, the vice-chairperson of the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco), its managing director Saurabh Das and law minister Malay Ghatak were also present. Mamata...

-The Economic Times Reports say that land acquisition for the proposed mega plant of Korean steel major Posco, off Paradip in coastal Orissa, has come to a grinding halt following incessant protests by men, women and children in the affected villages in the area, especially Dhinkia and Govindpur. It is now glaringly evident that a sorry lack of vision in garnering land for project implementation is stalling industry, new jobs and...