-The Indian Express The political discourse over land acquisition has proceeded in binary terms - industry versus farmer, growth versus no growth - thereby obfuscating the real issue at the heart of the land acquisition debate: the fear of arbitrary exercise of state power in reshaping property relations in Indian society. Instead of tweaking the 2015 land acquisition bill with a few amendments here and there to appease political allies and...

-The Hindu "No person should be denied any benefits or "suffer" for not having the Aadhaar cards issued by Unique Identification Authority of India." Clearing all doubts about the validity of Aadhaar card to avail of government subsidies, the Supreme Court on Monday confirmed that the Aadhar card is not compulsory, and further, officials who insist on them will be taken to task. A fuming Supreme Court issued a stern warning to the...

-The Indian Express In a last-ditch effort to stop moves that it says will "entirely defeat the purpose" of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has strongly objected to the revised guidelines for forest clearance that the government is in a hurry to notify. Prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) after a push from the Prime Minister's Office, the new rules will ease the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ruled that land acquisition proceedings are deemed to have lapsed if the government fails to compensate landowners or take possession of acquired land within two years. The court said if the government was keen on retaining the acquired land, it must re-initiate acquisition proceedings as provided under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. A bench of...

-The Telegraph Thiruvananthapuram: The NDA government's economic survey has referred to a stalled airport project in Kerala as a live one, shocking the local Sangh parivar that sees its success in blocking the plan as a feather in its cap. The Sangh's efforts had led to the National Green Tribunal quashing the previous UPA government's environmental clearance to the private airport project at Aranmula, a Unesco Global Heritage Village in Pathanamthitta district,...