-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 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...

-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...

'We want to pressure the government and assert our rights as citizens.' Arvind Kejriwal received the Magsaysay award in the Emergent leadership category in 2006. A mere five years later, he has far surpassed that milestone, winning acclaim and notice for the way he conceived and crafted Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement. He talks to Vidya Subrahmaniam about the Jan Lokpal campaign, what it accomplished and why it often became controversial. The scale...

-The Economic Times   The Union cabinet is likely to clear the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 next week and it is likely to be tabled in Parliament in the ongoing monsoon session itself. Minister of rural development Jairam Ramesh met with nine cabinet ministers on Thursday to finalise the contents of the draft bill. These include finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, home minister P Chidambaram, minister for tribal affairs Kishore Chand...