-PTI   The Commerce Ministry today said there was a need for a relook at the land ceiling rules for Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in view of protests against land acquisitions and it will shortly come out with a draft to bring changes in the SEZ Act of 2005. "There is a need [for a relook at] the SEZ rules and policies.... The minimum land requirement will also be relooked at, as land...

-The Hindu   Faced with strong protests from farmers and a demand from the Maharashtra government, the Centre on Tuesday announced the lifting of the ban on export of onions with immediate effect. The decision was taken by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Food headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. “Ban on onion export has been lifted,'' Union Minister for Science and Technology Vilasrao Deshmukh told journalists after the meeting. Union Agriculture...

Farmers will not have to cough up any tax upfront on the compensation money they receive for their land acquired by the government. The rural development ministry has clarified after complaints that in absence of clear rules the harshest provisions were being imposed. "We have issued orders that all compensation money for agricultural land acquisitions in both urban and rural areas should be made without any deductions," said an official in...

West Bengal on Wednesday finalized a new land policy under which it will seize industrial land not used for five years. If the land had been acquired from farmers, the government will redistribute it among original owners, the new policy says, expanding the scope for returning farm land taken over for industrial use. Though cleared by the state cabinet on Wednesday, the new land policy wasn’t formally announced in view of two...

-The Hindu   The draft Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 circulated two months ago for public comments was a significant step forward but the amended version tabled in Parliament recently is two steps back. A thorough overhaul of the archaic Land Acquisition Act was overdue. To his credit, Jairam Ramesh, Cabinet Minister for Rural Development, proposed a new bill with progressive changes and put it up for public consultation. The...