West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday appointed a two-member expert committee to formulate a new land policy of the state government. Reiterating her known stand against forcible acquisition of land, Ms Banerjee said: “There is much confusion over the issue of land acquisition. Our government has decided to have a new land policy which will help us prepare a land bank.” Significantly, the earlier Left Front government which...

-The Business Standard   Land acquisition for non-agricultural purposes is one of the oldest policy challenges that modern governments have faced. It is, therefore, not surprising that it has become a major political issue in India as urbanisation spreads, new industries grow and major infrastructure development takes place. To imagine that complex political challenges faced in widely varying agrarian, social and economic contexts can be suitably addressed by one common national...

The revised blueprint for land acquisition envisages government retaining its facilitator role Contentious Issues     * Protests are often against land acquisition per se, regardless of compensation     * Most protests are against private builders acquiring land, changing land use. New norms don’t tackle this.     * Poor government track record in R&R does not inspire much confidence; merged bills won’t work for rehabilitation after natural calamities, etc     * Can the government, which...

A Working Group (WG) set up by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) has drafted a detailed note on land acquisition and relief and rehabilitation which seeks not only to go beyond the pending government bills on the subject, but recommends that the two be merged into a single National Development, Acquisition, Displacement and Rehabilitation Act. Interestingly, it rejects the Haryana model that Congress leaders only too often hold up...

After getting a earful about the proposed Areva nuclear reactor from disgruntled farmers in Jaitapur, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh heard a sobering assessment of the Areva's Finnish reactor project — which is running four years behind schedule, with cost overruns hitting 2.7 billion euros — from that country's nuclear regulator. In a presentation made to Mr. Ramesh and a visiting Indian delegation in Finland earlier this week, Finnish regulator STUK...