The Mamata Banerjee ministry will not accept government role in land acquisition for the private sector even under the private-public partnership model, except in “specific and limited situations”, sources said after a cabinet meeting this evening. A “final decision” on the state government’s position on the draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill is still to be taken. Mamata asked the group of ministers led by Partha Chatterjee entrusted with...

The Orissa government has failed to keep its commitment for renewal of the revised MoU with Posco-India Ltd for setting up 12-million ton steel plant near Paradip by July end as the South Korean company has not agreed to certain conditions in the revised MoU. Even as the tenure of the previous MoU expired on June 21, 2010, the state government had gone on acquiring land for the proposed steel...

The announcement last weekend by the prime minister that an independent National Environmental Appraisal and Monitoring Agency (NEAMA) would shortly be set up has been welcomed in the media. The PM indicates that it would be staffed by professionals, will set up a new process for environmental appraisal of projects, and monitor the observance of environmental management plans. It would be a recommendatory body, subject to final decision-making by the...

It’s been raining “rights” in Indian policy for the last few years — education, work, food, service, healthcare, and much else. This “Diet Coke” approach to poverty reduction — the sweetness without the calories — was always dangerous because of unknown side effects. Commenting in 1790 on the consequences of the French Revolution, Edmund Burke said: “They have found their punishment in their success. Laws overturned, tribunals subverted, industry without...

-IANS   West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, unveilinging scholarships and sops for the state's minorities, on Saturday accused the previousLeft government of sowing confusion by announcing a "hurried and erroneous" quota in government jobs for Muslims. Addressing a programme organised by the West Bengal Minorities Development and Finance Corporation, Banerjee declared that loans totalling Rs.82 crore will be given this year to the minorities, besides scholarships and stipends worth Rs.122 crore. "This...