-The Telegraph New Delhi/Patna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today landed in the national capital with a demand of a relief package of Rs 12,000 crore from the Centre. A day after declaring 33 of Bihar's 38 districts as drought-hit, Nitish, who met finance minister P. Chidambaram and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, said the state's agrarian economy was totally paralysed because of the acute rainfall deficiency during the kharif season. Nitish requested Chidambaram to...

-PTI PATNA: Concerned over depleting water resources due to soaring population, Bihar government has undertaken an exercise to conserve water along with large scale afforestation. The forest department is carrying out the exercise of water harvesting on mountains by building small structures, secretary environment and forest Dipak Kumar Singh said. The task had been successfully carried out in Gaya, Rajgir, Banka, Rohtas, Kaimur and Jamui having large forest cover alongside mountains, he said. Singh...

-The Times of India NASHIK: The average wholesale price of onions at the country's largest market at the Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) in Nashik touched a new all-time high of Rs 5,300 a quintal on Monday. This pushed the retail rate to Rs 70 a kg against Rs 55 last week. The prices have skyrocketed, breaking the previous record of Rs 4,800 a quintal last Friday, largely due to the...

-The Hindu     The Land Act leaves plenty of room for States and the Centre to bypass it and acquire land under other laws that do not provide adequate compensation and rehabilitation The amended version of the Land Acquisition Act has been passed, but it does not entirely settle the issues of dubious takeover of land and failure to pay fair compensation. Although renamed the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Flagging the challenge of raising foodgrain production, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today promised all assistance to states for improving agricultural growth. "It's a challenging job to increase production of foodgrains and other crops for the growing population of the country, especially, because agriculture is still dependent on monsoon in large parts of the country," he said, addressing a gathering of farmers, who arrived here as part of a nationwide...