West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, now on a tour of the State's drought-hit areas, has said that the prime task before the government was to save whatever crop had been sown in the 11 districts where cultivation had been badly affected by the errant monsoon. Protecting livelihoods was also very important, he said. “Our first task now is to save whatever crop has already been cultivated by the farmers in...

Raising doubts on the impartiality of the Saxena-Pandey committee appointed by the Centre, the Orissa government has questioned the authenticity of their findings about violations in the Posco project area. Countering the charge of violation of the Forest Rights Act, the state government has asked the environment ministry to reconsider its “stop work” order. In a letter to the Union environment ministry, the state government has alleged that “the way...

The Left parties would raise a demand to scrap the “archaic” Land Acquisition Act, 1884, as it facilitated land acquisition by big corporates, who took advantage of the acute distress of farmers, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat said here on Sunday. “Why are they [the Centre] delaying the scrapping of the Act?” she said. “There is utter hypocrisy in land reforms and distribution in the country.”...