-The Telegraph Jaipur: At least two sitting women village heads in Rajasthan would have to watch from the sidelines when rural polls get under way tomorrow after the high court today refused to stay an ordinance that has fixed minimum educational qualifications for contestants. A bench of Chief Justice Sunil Ambawani and Justice Prakash Gupta said courts couldn't interfere once the notification had been issued and the election process set in motion. The...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: After vociferous protests from workers' unions, Narendra Modi government's coal ordinance is drawing flak from adivasi villagers of north Chhattisgarh as 20 gram sabhas from three districts of the state have passed resolutions against resumption of mining in 16 coal blocks spread over 2,000 sq km of dense forests which were part of the previous UPA government's 'no go' areas. The opposition could be debilitating for the...

-Business Standard Since it came to power in May 2014, the NDA government has been working to do away with the need for such consent from tribal village councils Five coal blocks up for allocation and auction in the first phase could get stuck in a land conflict. A total of 20 tribal village councils in the Hasdeo-Arand and Dharamjaigarh forest areas of Chhattisgarh have passed formal resolutions under the Forest Rights...

The tribal or the Scheduled Tribe communities constitute only 8.6 percent of India's population and yet, they are around 40 percent of those displaced due to ‘development’ projects. In the midst of a raging debate on the new Land Acquisition Ordinance, a new report brings out many such paradoxes of development versus displacement of India’s indigenous or Adivasi people. The report exposes the anomalies of land alienation, displacement and forced...

-Business Standard The ordinance has returned near absolute power of discretion in land acquisition, except in tribal areas, into the hands of the bureaucracy yet again Even after the National Democratic Alliance's land ordinance, governments will still need the consent of tribal gram sabhas in all Schedule V and VI areas of the country before acquiring land for themselves or for public-private projects. While the land ordinance has done away with the need...