-The Hindu Saving the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) — the centrepiece of UPA-I’s achievements in the social welfare sector — from its many critics in government and the media who view it as a drain on the exchequer will head the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC)’s agenda in the coming months. At a meeting of the reconstituted NAC on Friday, its members discussed the role a re-energised...

Ranchi: The state government is trying to persuade villagers of Nagri to approach the courts once again to find a solution to the dispute over land acquisition and compensation that has disrupted construction of campuses for three national institutes of learning, but the tribals are in no mood to relent. Today more than 100 villagers blocked the Ranchi-Patratu road since morning, braving sharp downpours, while the administration deployed over 100 policemen...

-The Telegraph A day after land protests rocked Nagri, work at the construction site of three premier educational institutions stalled on Thursday even as villagers demanding “return” of their fertile land blocked the arterial Ranchi-Patratu road a kilometre away, disrupting Hazaribagh-bound traffic from the capital throughout the day. A 100-strong mob, comprising mostly women, used a crane belonging to a contractor, to block the vital artery from 9am. Even heavy rain failed...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: Land politics took an ugly turn in Nagri today, leaving two dozen people, including a senior police officer, wounded and the future of three elite cradles tense. Disarmed by a recent Supreme Court snub on their claim over 218 “fertile” acres — allotted by the government for IIM, IIIT and NUSRL campuses — villagers armed with bamboo poles and iron rods partially dismantled the boundary walls of the management...

-The Hindu Most people remain at the mercy of a venal administration that, encouraged by the absence of an independent watchdog, exploits them relentlessly   The state of affairs in the country is characterised by rampant corruption at all levels leading to a breakdown in the rule of law and lack of accountability all around. One can say that there is a complete collapse of governance in the country. Something drastic needs to...