-The Indian Express If the BJP finds itself on the back foot today, it isn't because of corruption scandals, but due to the splintering of its social coalition As the stage is set for the state assembly elections in Karnataka, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda recently made a surprising admission: corruption is not an issue in the upcoming elections, and the precipitous decline in political morality can only be arrested by...

-Frontline The Land Acquisition Bill runs into a roadblock as political parties fail to reach an agreement on the substantive features of the draft Bill or on the amendments proposed. The efforts of the United Progressive Alliance government to broker a consensus on the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012, which has been pending for over a year, have not paid off not because...

Groups from across India gathered in Delhi recently to assess the Forest Rights Act’s journey since 2006. The law is often dubbed as ‘landmark’ because it ended the age-old illegality surrounding communities living in forest areas by entitling them to individual and community land title. It also went beyond the colonial paradigms of the forest bureaucracy to recognise community efforts at protecting and preserving forests. Numerous groups and individuals working...

-The Indian Express The coal ministry is likely to tell the Supreme Court that allocations made through the screening committee route were "unimpeachable and unquestionable". A day after the Supreme Court rapped the government saying all coal blocks allocated during 2006-09 can be summarily de-allocated if breach of procedures in the defined allocation process is established, coal ministry officials are sure they can defend the policy. They aim to include the comments of...

-The Times of India PANAJI: The Union mines ministry hasn't ruled out pollution hazards while handling mining dumps in Goa. Union mines minister Dinsha Patel told parliament on Tuesday, "Such possibilities (pollution hazards while moving dumps) cannot be ruled out, and the same has been brought to the notice of the state government by the Indian bureau of mines, a sub-ordinate office under the ministry of mines, for proper environmental clearances as...