-The Hindu   The CPI(Marxist) on Thursday described the Planning Commission's definition of BPL as “a mockery and a fraud” and found fault with the UPA government for not being able to deliver on its two-year-old promise of food security legislation. In an editorial in the latest edition of the party organ People's Democracy, the party referred to the ongoing proceedings on a PIL before the Supreme Court, regarding the Planning Commission's...

-The Indian Express   With Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee resigning from the Union Cabinet to take over as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) today completely sidelined her objections against government role in land acquisition — even for private industry. “The government will be acquiring 100 per cent of the land for public purpose by offering very good compensation to landowners. If the public purpose...

The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has proposed that landowners should be paid six times the registered sale deed value as compensation and a solatium in case of compulsory acquisition by the state. The council sat through the day today firming up recommendations for the land acquisition bill the Centre plans to introduce in the next session of Parliament. Sonia was present for nearly six hours. It also proposed that compensation should...

How does the government manage to keep the poverty line so low? Rather simple for the statisticians — they simply bring down the key parameter — amount of food one should have to stay alive. Earlier, the Planning Commission stipulated 2,100kilo calories per day per person in the cities and 2,400 kcalories per day per person was the minimum required to survive. Now consuming 1,800 kcalories per day is enough,...

-Express News Service   Even as irregularities in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have been making headlines, a discrepancy in the scheme was reported from Dumuriput village under Padampur panchayat in Koraput block. Vehicles have been put to use and only a minimum number of job card-holders engaged in the construction work of approach road to the village from the old national highway. The work started a few...