-Frontline The Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill is an attempt to circumvent the hurdles before acquisition, such as rehabilitation of land losers, without much increasing the cost of land. THE preamble to the draft Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (LARR) Bill is very noble; it talks about a “humane, informed, consultative and transparent process for land acquisition for industrialisation, development of essential infrastructural facilities and urbanisation with the least disturbance...

-Outlook The National Water Resources Council chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to adopt tomorrow the draft National Water Policy, 2012 that stresses on the need to evolve a broad over-arching national legal framework on water. The draft announced by the government in January this year was revised twice based on the recommendations made by the National Water Board. The Prime Minister chairs the meeting of the Council which has all...

-The Indian Express In a major course correction, the 153 amendments that Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh is likely to introduce to the Land Acquisition Bill in Lok Sabha on Tuesday includes a watered-down retrospective clause. The cabinet, which met last Thursday, had established the sanctity of awards declared for ongoing land acquisition processes under the existing Land Acquisition Act, 1894 across the country. This was a rejection of Jairam’s proposal to...

-The Indian Express A free press that is able to operate without fear or favour remains an essential cornerstone of a modern democratic society. It plays a fundamental role as the guardian of public interest. By the same token, when certain deficiencies in its role become apparent, public and political furore is inevitable. So it came to pass in Britain, where public anger emanating from a single action — the hacking...

-Outlook The government today ruled out extension of the deadline for enforcing the Right to Education Act beyond March 2013 as several states are yet to achieve the RTE standards for school infrastructure. HRD minister M M Pallam Raju said that while Bihar Education Minister demanded the need for extending RTE deadline some other Education Ministers did not support such an extension. Talking to reporters following the conclusion of the Central Advisory Board...