For five years, they controlled the administration in impoverished Bellary, even flattened state boundary markers to excavate iron ore—while insisting they had no mining interests in Karnataka. Now, the reign of the rulers of the “Republic of Bellary”—as the unofficial influence of two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers and a milk federation chief, collectively called the Reddy brothers—appears to be at an end. As the Supreme Court on Friday banned all mining...
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Draft land acquisition law unveiled by Ruhi Tewari & Liz Mathew
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government’s proposed land acquisition law, a politically sensitive and critical piece of legislation that could potentially remove a big roadblock to industrial investment, aims to address rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R), providing safeguards for both land owners and livelihood losers, while clearly defining the “public purpose” for which land can be acquired by the government. “This draft Bill seeks to balance the need for facilitating land acquisition...
More »The Karnataka mining report by Vicky Nanjappa
The report on illegal mining in Karnataka, compiled by Lokayukta Santosh Hegde and his team, may spell the end of the first Bharatiya Janata Party government in south India. While the report is voluminous, here are a few details of what the Lokayukta and his team have found while probing the illegal mining scam. In the report the Lokayukta clearly makes charges against Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and Minister for...
More »HC questions Hasan Ali's source of wealth
-PTI The Bombay high court today questioned the source of wealth of Pune-based businessman Hasan Ali Khan, arrested in a money laundering case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). "From where did he (Hasan) get so much money? Is it his or someone else's? No person can amass so much money through any decent activity. He must have committed some other offence (apart from what he has been arrested for)," Justice A...
More »ICAI report on black money to be ready in Sept
-PTI The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) today said it would submit its report to the government in September, suggesting changes required in the key economic Acts such as Income Tax and FEMA to tackle the menace of black money and ways of retrieving it from tax havens abroad. ICAI had said earlier this month that the report was expected in August. A committee, headed by ICAI President G Ramaswamy, is...
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