-Frontline The Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill is an attempt to circumvent the hurdles before acquisition, such as rehabilitation of land losers, without much increasing the cost of land. THE preamble to the draft Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (LARR) Bill is very noble; it talks about a “humane, informed, consultative and transparent process for land acquisition for industrialisation, development of essential infrastructural facilities and urbanisation with the least disturbance...

-The Hoot    A significant agitation against land acquisition and the bail and re-arrest of its leader were barely noticed by mainstream media. Isn’t it the media’s disdain for lower caste/class dissenters, wonders ARITRA BHATTACHARYA. I remember my first glimpse of Dayamani Barla: there she was on the screen, fierce, stoic, talking about the ravages the Koel Karo dam and Hydel Power Project would bring to the people of the region. I remember...

-The Hindustan Times In June 1992, Manmohan Singh, then finance minister in the Government of India, delivered the Foundation Day Address of the Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development (SPWD). He spoke on the topic ‘Environment and the New Economic Policies’. In his talk, Singh urged “objective standards industry-wise for safeguarding the environment, asking industry to certify compliance with these standards, institution of an effective system of verification and industry audit...

-The Times of India   If you don't act now, Delhi will be starved of electricity and water in the coming years - this was the dire warning given by a group of village women, who have come to Delhi from remote areas of Uttarakhand. Their mission is to shake up the government and get it to restart work on several hydel projects in the state. There is indeed a connection with the...

-The Pioneer We have to climb daily for 3 km across the hills on foot from our village in Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand to Dodra Kwar village on Himachal border just to charge mobile set”, says Satrama, woman from Pujeli village in Uttarakhand. Her village is one of those 1,220 villages in hills of Uttarkashi that continues to grope in the dark since the past three years. The villagers are vociferously protesting...