-NDTV Bhopal: Twenty farmers in Bujbuja village of Katni district in Madhya Pradesh sit every day on funeral pyres, with kerosene and match sticks at arm's reach. This is a relay protest against acquisition of land by the government for a thermal power plant in the area.   On Diwali, a woman called Sunia Bai, allegedly set herself on fire after she was threatened by the authorities to give up her land. The...

-The Hindustan Times A farmer's wife's suicide, another farmer's attempt to end his life, police lathicharge and farmers continuing agitation against land acquisition for a thermal power plant has made Katni a political hotbed.   The BJP and the Congress have locked horns over the development and JD (U) is trying to consolidate its position over the issue. The impact of the farmers' agitation against land acquisition for Welspun Energy Madhya Pradesh...

-The Hindu The trials and tribulations of Ashok Khemka and Sanjiv Chaturvedi expose Haryana’s intolerance of upright bureaucrats When Haryana’s top land registration official, Ashok Khemka, decided to probe Robert Vadra’s land deals in the State, he perhaps never anticipated the kind of animosity that his actions against Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law would generate within the government. Or, maybe he did, but went ahead nevertheless, hoping that a proactive media would...

-The Times of India The government on Friday said that it would not play big brother with regard to the media and hoped that any course correction required would come from the media itself. In a statement on the occasion of National Press Day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and I&B minister Manish Tewari came out support of self-regulation, which was in sharp contrast with Press Council chief Markandey Katju seeking greater regulatory...

-The Hindustan Times Katni land acquisition row turned ugly on Tuesday (Diwali), with a woman fatally immolating herself after alleged threats from the administration to vacate her agricultural land to facilitate its acquisition for a thermal power plant in Katni district, more than 450 kilometres north east of Bhopal. The villagers reportedly staged a dharna with the woman's body refusing to cremate it until the guilty are punished and land acquisition process...