The farmers' agitation in Uttar Pradesh brings into focus the indiscriminate acquisition of land by the state for corporate-led development. ON May 19, three days before the formal observation of the second anniversary of the United Progressive Alliance government, Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi made a categorical announcement that in the monsoon session of Parliament scheduled to begin in July the ruling coalition would bring in legislation that...
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For a sensitive law by V Venkatesan
The 117-year-old Land Acquisition Act cries out for reform, but there is resistance to introducing positive changes. The Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to amend the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, has had a long period of gestation. The Union Ministry of Rural Development initiated the process of amendment way back in October 1998. But it took around 10 years for the government to bring the Bill before Parliament. The 1894...
More »Congress quizzes CAG on 2G loss
-The Times of India Congress members on the Joint Parliamentary Committee on telecom policy on Monday aggressively questioned the government's chief auditor Vinod Rai over his estimate that revenues losses in the 2G scam could be as high as Rs 1.76 lakh crore. In what came across as a strategy to knock down the 2G scam losses from the staggering figure computed by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Congress MPs wanted to...
More »Contentious issues bog down Lokpal Bill panel by K Balchand
UPA government for excluding PM, higher judiciary and acts of MPs in Parliament from scrutiny The Joint Drafting Committee on the Lokpal Bill on Monday for the first time got bogged down by contentious issues. The UPA government opposed scrutiny by the Lokpal of the Prime Minister, the higher judiciary and acts of MPs inside Parliament — in the context of seeking cash for votes and for raising questions —...
More »Economists write to Sonia Gandhi
-The Economic Times Dear Smt Gandhi, We, a group of academic economists, are writing to you about the proposed National Food Security (NFS) Act legislation that is of profound importance to India's economy. We believe that it is appropriate that India pursues the goal of genuine food security for all through a law that guarantees a minimum transfer to every adult except a small subset of the most affluent who...
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