On May 23, the president of the Congress, Sonia Gandhi, laid the foundation stone of a bridge being built across the river Ravi, linking Jammu and Kashmir with Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Ten days later, she was in Rajasthan, inaugurating the National Rural Livelihoods Mission. For both trips she had to travel far from her place of residence, which — given her position — would have involved careful planning beforehand,...

Rather than shutting its doors on ‘civil society’, the government should be thanking its stars that the latter wants to make law, not war. Distributing tee-shirts with this slogan would be a better use of the government’s ‘hearts and minds’ funds than the integrated action plan to counter Naxals, or the army’s tourism trips to Pune for Kashmiri schoolgirls. The UPA regime has been unprecedented for the spate of legislation that...

-The Business Standard   Government today said the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill will include the recommendations made by Sonia Gandhi-led NAC, and once passed, the legislation will ensure that there are "no more Singurs" in the country. "The recommendations of the NAC will be included in the Land Acquisition bill...There will be no more Singurs. It will support the aspirations of the people," Law Minister M Veerappa Moily told reporters here. The Law...

-Express News Service   The Centre said on Monday the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill would include the recommendations made by Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC), and, once passed, the legislation would ensure that there are “no more Singurs” in the country. The NAC has prescribed a seven-point test for a having a humane legislation on land acquisition and rehabilitation. “The recent recommendations of the NAC will be included in the Land...

-Express News Service   After initial refusal to sanction funds under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to the six districts under CBI scanner, the Centre on Monday released Rs 170 crore for the wage employment programme. “The Government received the Central assistance and this has been distributed among six districts,” said Panchayati Raj Secretary PK Jena.  Though the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) released the first installment of `...