Faced with protests by farmers demanding higher compensation for land acquired for a township along the Taj Expressway, the Mayawati government on Tuesday decided to hike the price offered to them by 20 per cent at Rs 570 per square metre. A team of top state officials led by state cabinet secretary Sashankh Sekhar Singh and some senior ministers of the Mayawati government held parleys with farmer leaderRam Babu Kateria...

As India was celebrating 63 years of Independence, the village of Tappal around 80 kilometers from Aligarh resembled a battleground - the epicentre of violence between farmers and the police since Saturday. There were protests in Mathura as well. Hundreds of farmers were demanding higher compensation for their land that has been acquired for the Yamuna expressway, a 165-km road corridor between Noida and Agra. The agitation turned violent after police allegedly...

Farmers in Aligarh and Mathura districts of Uttar Pradesh went on a rampage, blocking roads and setting vehicles ablaze on Sunday after two persons were killed in police firing on Saturday. They were staging a demonstration to demand higher compensation for land acquired by the state government to build the Agra-Yamuna Expressway. A police official was also killed in the violence on Saturday. "Nearly half-a-dozen people were injured in clash with the...

Trouble erupted at Jikarpur, near Aligarh, on Saturday night after rumours spread that a farmer leader had been arrested near the village. Police opened fire to disperse the violent protesters and bring the situation under control, said SSP (Aligarh) Vijay Prakash, who was transferred on Sunday. B.D. Palson, SSP of Mathura, which too was hit by the violence, was also shifted. Two persons and a PAC jawan were killed and nine injured in...

One of the most intriguing features of India's Agrarian economy in recent years is the persistence of Agrarian distress in many regions, even while agricultural credit flow has risen sharply. Rising flow of credit to agriculture is normally associated with buoyancy in the farm sector. A closer look at the data on agricultural credit reveals that what is termed agricultural credit may have very little to do with agriculture, the...