-The Times of India NEW DELHI: About a quarter of India's districts are witnessing mass protests over land acquisition issues according to a study. It identified 252 land conflicts spread over 165 districts, spanning practically all states of the country, in 2013-14. This is an increase of over 40% over 2012 when an earlier study had recorded 177 disputes in 130 districts. This incendiary situation is the reason behind the bitter debate...
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When The Haze Takes Over -Pavithra S Rangan
-Outlook The NDA seems bent on subverting the RTI Act. Is the slow dismembering of the CIC part of the plan? We Have No Recall For the first time since its inception, CIC's functions expropriated by the govt A search committee set up to appoint a new CIC chief says meeting details cannot be revealed; "highly confidential" RTI appeals pertaining to prime depts...
More »Days before Pillai row, Environment told Coal: stop Mahan block auction -Jay Mazoomdaar
-The Indian Express Three weeks before Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai was stopped from travelling to London where she was to speak on the alleged violation of forest rights of tribals in the Mahan coal block area of Madhya Pradesh, the Ministry of Environment and Forests asked the Ministry of Coal not to auction the block as it is "located in inviolate forest area". Pillai was stopped at Delhi airport on January 11...
More »What are ordinances? -B Sundaresan
-The Hindustan Times The government has chosen the Ordinance route to put into force several legislative Bills over the past months. Many of these are expected to be tabled in Parliament in the upcoming budget session. HT explains four of them. What is an ordinance? As per Article 123 of the Constitution, when Parliament is not in session, the President has the power to promulgate an Ordinance - which has the same force...
More »Five coal blocks in Chhattisgarh might see land conflict -Nitin Sethi
-Business Standard Since it came to power in May 2014, the NDA government has been working to do away with the need for such consent from tribal village councils Five coal blocks up for allocation and auction in the first phase could get stuck in a land conflict. A total of 20 tribal village councils in the Hasdeo-Arand and Dharamjaigarh forest areas of Chhattisgarh have passed formal resolutions under the Forest Rights...
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