The West Bengal assembly on Tuesday passed a bill to return to some of the original owners their land in Singur, which had been acquired by the previous Left Front government for the Nano project. In doing so, chief minister Mamata Banerjee kept her pre-poll promise to the electorate, which gave her Trinamool Congress, a resounding majority in the elections. The Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill cites “non-commissioning of the...

-The Telegraph Tata Motors has “abandoned” the Singur project, according to the draft of a state government bill that seeks to take over the entire land leased out to the company and prospective vendors. If the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill, 2011, gets passed in the Assembly without any changes to the draft, it will be a matter of official record that the project has “in fact been abandoned by the...

In his lifetime, Nigamanand, an ascetic fighting a lonely battle against quarrying activities in Uttarakhand, tried to draw the attention of the national media to an environmental disaster waiting to happen in the state. In his death, the 36-year-old Sadhu, who went into a coma and died on Wednesday following his four-month-long fast in the same hospital at Dehra Dun where Ramdev was admitted, has forced civil society, politicians and the...

The battle against Posco appeared to be reaching a crucial stage as around 2,000 protectors today continued to block the entry of police and officials into Dhinkia and Gobindapur even as an Opposition delegation visited the area to lend support to the people’s movement. As the protesters refused to budge, the officials were forced to return empty-handed after a five-hour-long wait. The movement against the 12-million-tonne Posco steel project got a big...

-PTI   The National Advisory Council (NAC) has prescribed a seven-point test for a having a humane legislation on land acquisition and rehabilitation. In a letter to the government, the NAC chaired by Sonia Gandhi, has suggested a check list of seven parameters which includes provisions for a rehabilitation package that is sensitive to the aspirations of the affected people. NAC’s check list Does it discourage forced displacement? Does it minimise adverse impacts on people,...