The revised blueprint for land acquisition envisages government retaining its facilitator role Contentious Issues     * Protests are often against land acquisition per se, regardless of compensation     * Most protests are against private builders acquiring land, changing land use. New norms don’t tackle this.     * Poor government track record in R&R does not inspire much confidence; merged bills won’t work for rehabilitation after natural calamities, etc     * Can the government, which...

-Outlook   Eight police personnel were held hostage by a group of villagers opposing the Rs 52,000 crore Posco steel plant for nearly five hours today before being set free in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district. Seven policemen and the driver of police jeep which entered Patana village in Dhinkia panchayat were stopped by villagers, mostly women and were held captive, Additional Superintendent of Police Shantanu Das told reporters. The policemen and the driver were...

The commission plans to file several cases under the SC & ST Act The battle of Bhatta-Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh's Greater NOIDA area, where violence raged recently over the contentious issue of land acquisition, promises to get bigger. On Thursday, the National Commission for the Scheduled Castes decided to summon the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police of Gautam Budh Nagar district, where the twin villages are located, to seek a...

-The Economic Times,    The BJP today demanded a thorough probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into all corruption cases in Orissa. "All scams that have taken place during the 11-year-rule of Naveen Patnaik should be investigated thoroughly by SIT," BJP's national secretary Kirit Somaya told reporters after releasing a chargesheet against the state government. SIT should be formed to probe scams relating to MGNREGA, dal scandal, mining, water, cheating of farmers,...

The Delhi High Court on Monday stayed an order that would have allowed Indians to seek information from the Supreme Court under the country’s Right-to-Information act, rather than under existing court rules, after the top court appealed the ruling. Earlier this month, the Central Information Commission, which oversees the implementation of India’s transparency law, ruled that people seeking information from the court were entitled to use the four-year-old statute if they...