What farmers get are lathis and litigation, observes Justice Ganguly The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed concern over misuse of the Land Acquisition Act, a colonial law, by all States to acquire land from farmers for development in the guise of a ‘public purpose'. A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly said that in the name of globalisation and land development the States had marginalised farmers by paying a pittance...
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Salwa Judum is illegal, says Supreme Court by J Venkatesan
Chhattisgarh must disarm SPOs, probe their alleged crimes In a blow to both the Chhattisgarh government and the Centre, the Supreme Court has declared illegal and unconstitutional the deployment of tribal youth as Special Police Officers — either as ‘Koya Commandos', Salwa Judum or any other force — in the fight against the Maoist insurgency, and ordered their immediate disarming. The ruling — issued on Tuesday by Justices B. Sudershan Reddy and...
More »State biggest land grabber, says Supreme Court
-PTI The Supreme Court on Tuesday slammed the authorities for taking advantage of the "colonial law" on land acquisition to divest farmers of their prime agricultural land benefitting the rich and paying "pittiance" to common men. The apex court said a "sinister campaign" has been launched by various state governments to take adavantage of the law against the poor people for taking away the land and giving it to builders where...
More »Where no sunlight goes by Nikhil Dey, Aruna Roy
If actions speak louder than words, then the government has just spoken loud and clear. There could be no stronger indication of the government’s lack of serious intent in building an effective anti-corruption regime than the decision to remove the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) law. Without any discussion in the public domain, the government has decided to use Section 24 of...
More »Effective Lokpal Not In Sight by Rajindar Sachar
As expected, the government and the Anna Team have disagreed on vital points. The question of inclusion of the Prime Minister within the ambit of the Lokpal is being falsely blown out of proportions by the government’s apologists. The Prime Minister, though the head of government, is only first amongst equals. In a democratic country, political vacuum does not arise as the Cabinet has a collective responsibility. Also, our past...
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