When farmers in Gujarat want to fight big companies or the government, they know who to turn to. A frail 95-year-old who survives on four chapatis a day and refuses to hang up his protester’s boots. Just seven months ago, Chunni Vaidya walked 370km to stop a Nirma cement plant in Mahuva village because he agreed that it would poison water bodies. Nowadays, if the Gandhian is not travelling to coastal Mithivirdi...
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Home voices against Anna by Jaideep Hardikar
Vilas Bhagwan Pote grins as he recalls his election as sarpanch of Ralegan Siddhi, Anna Hazare’s village in Ahmednagar district, 11 years ago. “I was the traitor, the bad guy,” he jokes. “I openly defied Anna because I felt he was wrong.” Pote, a Dalit charmakar (cobbler) then in his 30s, had been unhappy as the 2000 panchayat polls drew close. As always, Anna had nominated a new executive body for the...
More »UPA introduces land acquisition Bill in Lok Sabha by Ruhi Tewari
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on Wednesday introduced the politically crucial land acquisition Bill in the Lok Sabha, less than two months after the ministry of rural development began drafting it. The National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation & Resettlement Bill, 2011, aims to address rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) by providing safeguards for both landowners and livelihood losers while clearly defining the “public purpose” for which land can be acquired...
More »Cabinet likely to clear Land Acquisition Bill next week
-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...
More »Farmers to resume land agitations years after acquisition by Balwant Garg
After Mansa, now the farmers in Bathinda and Faridkot districts are up in arms against the state government over the land acquisition issue. Though their land was acquired by the state government many years back, the state government may face renewed agitation from farmers, who think the land was `misused` and sold off to colonizers. Two agitations have already been witnessed in Bathinda and Faridkot in the last couple of weeks...
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