-PTI   To press for farmers' demands, including pension and interest free loan, Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sabha would launch a nation-wide stir on September 1. "On September 1 demonstrations of farmers would be organised across the country to press for six point charter of demands," ABKS general secretary Atul Kumar Anjan told reporters here today. The main demand includes pension to farmers at the age of 60 years by the Centre and the...

-The Business Standard   Tension prevailed in the Posco project site in Orissa as the irate villagers on Thursday detained two officials, one from Posco and another staff of Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (Idco), who had gone to Noliasahi in Gadakujang panchayat for cutting of tress on the acquired land. They were later released after being held captive for about four hours. The officials, who had gone to the village without...

-Express News Service   The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed the invocation of emergency clause by the Mayawati government to acquire private land for the construction of a district jail without hearing objections raised by the aggrieved land owners. “The series of events shows lethargy and lackadaisical attitude of the state government,” a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and H L Dattu observed against the manner in which the state government...

-Live Mint   Finally, a serious roadblock in the country’s march to industrialization may be removed soon. The Union ministry of rural development has unveiled a draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Bill. Once a law, LARR could potentially end arbitrary land acquisitions under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894. Any well-functioning market gives clear signals and prices are market-driven. The 1894 law with its ill-defined “public purpose” clause...

-The Indian Express   The Allahabad High Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre, UP government, Greater Noida and Noida authorities and the Yamuna Expressway Development Industrial Authority (YEIDA) on a petition demanding a CBI probe into land acquisitions in Noida and Greater Noida from 2005 to 2010. Asking them to file counter-affidavits in two weeks, the court said it would examine the maintainability of the petition on the next date...