-Business Standard The Union government has remained equivocal in public about the Shanta Kumar report and whether the National Democratic Alliance intends to follow up and change the National Food Security Act. But at least on one count it has moved fast to implement the report - converting the subsidised food supply into cash transfers under the Direct Benefits Transfer Scheme. The food ministry has written to the Union Territories to...

-The Telegraph Prithla (Haryana): The noise from the factories and traffic cannot drown out the slogan resonating along the Delhi-Mathura highway, demanding a right to land for all and the scrapping of the land acquisition ordinance. "Sabki bhuk mitana hai to bhumi grahan ardhyadesh radh karo, bhumi samasya hal karo (To remove hunger, dump the ordinance and solve the problem of the landless)," goes the chant. Some 5,000 landless people and marginal farmers...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre is likely to make key changes to the land acquisition ordinance in the face of gathering protests from multiple flanks and a nudge by Swadeshi affiliates. A clause that expanded the list of projects exempted from prior consent of affected families and a social impact assessment is expected to be done away with, said sources privy to discussions that have been going on through the week. The...

-Economic and Political Weekly   Amendments proposed by the previous Congress-led union government to the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 had the potential of improving upon this progressive legislation. Unfortunately, with its successor pursuing different priorities, the possibility of the amendments being passed remains rather low. Kamal Nayan Choubey (kamalnayanchoubey@gmail.com) is with the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. A bill for an amendment to the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas)...

-The Hindu Shanta Kumar panel favoured a drastic cut in beneficiaries The Narendra Modi government is not in a hurry to accept the controversial recommendation of the Shanta Kumar panel to cut the public distribution system beneficiaries for subsidised foodgrains to 40 from 67 per cent under the National Food Security Act, highly placed government sources have indicated to The Hindu. With several crucial Assembly elections in the offing this and the next...