The UPA government's land acquisition bill was expected to fill gaps in the archaic 1894 act and streamline the process of land acquisition and ensure fair compensation to farmers and landowners. But even before the bill is introduced in Parliament murmurs of dissent are being heard. The Land Acquisition Amendment Bill, piloted by rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, has drawn fire from critics for legitimizing purchase of vast tracts of land,...

-The Asian Age   West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, whose party Trinamul Congress is the key ally of the Congress, on Saturday gave her approval to the draft of the new Land Acquisition Amendment Bill, but with a rider. She wanted the Centre to give “a free hand” to the state government to introduce and implement a land acquisition law of its own. She made this announcement after a meeting Union rural...

-PTI   Industry body Ficci has suggested that the proposed Land Acquisition Act should apply to the private companies only if they buy 500 acres of land or more, instead of the 100 acres as suggested in the draft law. "The industry feels the threshold of 100 acres is very low for projects, especially in rural areas and this may only encourage smaller and fragmented holdings particularly in the mining sector. Hence, this...

-The Economic Times   There seems to be no end to Posco's hurdles in the land acquisition and construction drive for its proposed 12-million-tonne steel plant near Paradip, even as the South Korean steel major has agreed not to insist on an important import clause in its lapsed agreement with the Orissa government. Even supporters of Posco in the project-affected villages have turned hostile and are now totally opposed to felling of...

Anna Hazare and his followers have a skewed notion of corruption. Would they ever see the Bhopal gas tragedy as the symptom of the problem? The government’s initial contempt and arrogance for Anna Hazare’s protest turned into craven pandering as his hordes made a carnival of it in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan. One was troubled by the fate of other protesters who have received short shrift—the small, the struggling and much suffering...