-The Telegraph   Tata Motors refused stay by Calcutta High Court, government takes Delhi precaution Tata Motors said tonight the company would move the Supreme Court after failing to obtain a stay order against land distribution in Singur from Calcutta High Court after two attempts. “As per the country’s legal procedures, the company will agitate the matter before the Supreme Court,” it said. The statement came at the end of a day during which...

The episodes of violence in land acquisition by the government, as witnessed recently in Bhatta-Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh and in other states earlier, occur because patterns of violence are inbuilt into the process. Despite a bill pending in Parliament since 2007, there has been little effort by political parties to evolve a consensus on acquisition of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. The law as at present and also the provisions...

-The Telegraph   The Mamata Banerjee government today started the process of returning land to farmers in Singur, snubbing the Tata attempt to open a dialogue to maintain status quo on the 997-acre plot. Rabindranath Bhattacharya, the school education minister and MLA from Singur, and Becharam Manna, the MLA from Haripal, oversaw distribution of over 3,000 application forms among farmers in Gopalnagar, Beraberi, Bajemelia, Joymollah, Khaserbheri and Singherbheri. These farmers had not accepted...

When all failed, a police lathicharge did the trick. Farmers of Akaltara village were protesting against land acquisition for a month, but only after the police beat them up and arrested 78 men on a cold January evening, that things heated up. Opposition leaders rushed to the site and the government was forced to react. From Rs 8 lakh, compensation rates were hiked to Rs 17 lakh per acre. The...

Poor Andhra villagers now victims of clinical drug trials No Drug Resistance     * 35 women, some men from Guntur district put throughclinical trials of a breast cancer drug. They later complain of joint pains, nausea and chest pains.     * Biotech industry in Andhra is worth about Rs 455 crore     * Touts operating on behalf of pharma companies get people from the poorer districts to Hyderabad for the tests *** Some 35 women...