-Frontline The Land Acquisition Bill runs into a roadblock as political parties fail to reach an agreement on the substantive features of the draft Bill or on the amendments proposed. The efforts of the United Progressive Alliance government to broker a consensus on the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012, which has been pending for over a year, have not paid off not because...

-Bloomberg The corpse of Indian farmer Bengali Singh burned to ash atop a blazing funeral pyre on the banks of the river Ganges in 2006. Five years later, the dead man was recorded as being paid by India's $33 billion rural jobs program to dig an irrigation canal in Jharkhand state. Officials in his village and the surrounding region used at least 500 identities, including those of Singh, a disabled child of...

-Live Mint Reimbursing schools that reserve 25% seats for underprivileged children may end up costing the govt about Rs.16,000 cr The central government is faced with the prospect of a large bill to pay for the implementation of one of the key elements of the right to education (RTE) legislation-reimbursing private schools that reserved 25% of their seats for underprivileged children-even as the 31 March deadline for most of the law's other...

-The Telegraph Calcutta: The Bengal government today suggested that panchayat elections be held on May 5 and 8, springing in the high court a surprise that had little new other than the fresh dates. The government's proposal did not address the security concerns of the state election commission that had moved Calcutta High Court on Monday. According to the commission, central forces have to be deployed if the polls are held in two...

-The Hindu   "It deserves to be thrown into the dustbin" The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the magisterial probe report on the Tarn Taran incident, in which a girl and her father were beaten up by the Punjab police, as it justified the attack on the duo. A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and Kurian Joseph told Additional Solicitor-General Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the Punjab government, "the report does not have the value...