The Orissa government would wait for the views of its department secretaries in the next two weeks before taking a call on the renewal of the MoU with Posco. A high-level meeting of chaired by Chief Secretary B K Patnaik on Tuesday deferred a decision on recommending the revised Posco MoU to the Chief Minister as several department secretaries indicated that they needed time to study the new points. The government...

As the administration and the anti-industry brigade scaled up preparations for a showdown at Dhinkia gram panchayat in Jagatsinghpur district within the next few days, five political parties on Monday staged a civil disobedience agitation opposing the ongoing land acquisition for Posco steel project. Activists of CPI, CPM, Forward Bloc, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Samajwadi Party took out a rally from the Railway Station to PMG Square in Bhubaneswar, raising...

-The Hindu   Drawing attention to the situation in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa, where villagers are peacefully opposing forcible acquisition of their private and forest lands by the Orissa Government for South Korean steel major Posco's project, a report titled “Tearing through the water landscape: Evaluating the environmental and social consequences of Psco project in Orissa, India” was released here on Tuesday. “People have been against industrialisation of their land since November...

-The Business Standard   Five political parties stage protest against land acquisition Tension prevailed on Monday at the proposed Posco project site at Gobindpur village under Dhinkia panchayat as ten platoons of armed police conducted flag march ostensibly to create a fear psychosis among the local people ahead of the land acquisition process at trouble-torn Dhinkia panchayat. The situation is going to very critical at Gobindpur as the activists of Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti...

-The Hindu   The Uttar Pradesh government's new land acquisition policy, announced in the face of farmers' protests and impending elections, is a significant improvement over existing practices. It is sounder than the amendments to the central Act proposed by the UPA government, which have been awaiting enactment since 2007. Poor compensation calculated on rates based on the pre-development phase, a lack of consultation, and cumbersome procedures have marred the whole...