Days after it was made public, the new land acquisition bill is facing resistance. While farmer’s unions and civil society groups want more — permanent rights over land,  even in case of a take over, prior consent of people even for public projects, state agencies and developers are unhappy over the restrictive nature of the bill. "As farmers, we would not like to part with our land but if required in larger...

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 Hindu   The longstanding demand to correct anomalies in the Land Acquisition Act (1894) and check its misuse, and the impending Uttar Pradesh Assembly election have compelled the United Progressive Alliance government to come up with a much-improved piece of legislation. In speedily reshaping the proposed Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, which has been placed in the public domain as part of a pre-legislative consultative process, Jairam Ramesh, the new...

Not a comprehensive draft, says Medha Patkar The first major opposition to the draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011 will be in the form of a three-day dharna here beginning on Wednesday by the project-affected people. Various peoples' movements under the banner of SANGHARSH have decided to stage a dharna at Jantar Mantar protesting the new draft and demanding that the government come up with a comprehensive National...

Tribal affairs minister K.C. Deo feels the draft land acquisition bill does not adequately protect the Scheduled Tribes’ rights in case they have to be displaced to a non-scheduled area. Deo told The Telegraph he would write to rural development minister Jairam Ramesh about this. “Tribal people enjoy constitutional protection in the scheduled areas. If they are displaced for a certain project and resettled outside the scheduled area, the question is whether...