12 party workers killed, 425 injured in last three weeks The Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Surya Kanta Mishra, met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the State Secretariat here on Friday and expressed concern “over the amount and dimension of the violence” which had been inflicted upon supporters of the Left Front since the results of the Assembly Elections were announced three weeks ago. An 11-member delegation met...

Proposes that the percentage of land to be acquired by state agencies should be decided by their governments. The modified Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill is likely to suggest giving state governments the power to determine their roles in acquiring land for industry. Also, in a positive for farmers, the Bill proposes that if the land remains unused for five years, it should be automatically returned to them. If sold to a third...

The farmers' agitation in Uttar Pradesh brings into focus the indiscriminate acquisition of land by the state for corporate-led development. ON May 19, three days before the formal observation of the second anniversary of the United Progressive Alliance government, Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi made a categorical announcement that in the monsoon session of Parliament scheduled to begin in July the ruling coalition would bring in legislation that...

The success of the institution of Lokpal will depend on limiting its scope to the very top of the hierarchy. That will make it manageable and lead to accountability down the line. The drafting of the Lokpal bill is back in the news after the round of Assembly Elections. The co-chairperson of the high-power committee involved in the drafting has said that progress is slow and that the June 30 deadline...

‘Law needed to monitor selection of party candidates' West Bengal ahead of other four States which contested Assembly Elections Despite promises of women's participation, mere134 of 1,263 candidates women Thirty-five per cent of the MLAs elected in the recently concluded Assembly Elections in West Bengal have criminal cases pending against them as against an average of 33 per cent of those in the four other States that underwent Assembly Elections, according to the...