-The Times of India Expectedly, CAG's reports on coal, power and Delhi airport have raised a storm. Yes, one takeaway is the need for transparency in resource disbursal and use, be it minerals or land. But if CAG - whose job is to keep accounts - habitually hypothesises about presumptive revenue loss owing ostensibly to absence of this or that policy in the past, where will it end? Its coal audit...

-Pratirodh Bureau Activists led by Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar have alleged that the much awaited Land Acquisition Bill was actually a "diluted version" of the Standing Committee's recommended bill.   The activists under belonging to various groups, including National Alliance of People’s Movements, National Forum of Forest people and Forest Workers, Kisan Sangharsh Samiti and Sangharsh claimed that the "positive" position taken by the Standing Committee had been diluted by the...

-Tehelka Activists say that the agricultural land should not be acquired for non-agricultural purposes A group of activists on Tuesday 7 August raised concerns about the land acquisition bill in its new form. The activists have demanded a white paper stating the extent of land acquired by the government. The new bill, called the Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement and Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill, is at odds with the recommendations...

-The Economic Times The government has made key changes to the proposed legislation for land acquisition, making it more attractive for industry by easing some of the stringent conditions, a person privy to the draft told ET. The rural development ministry has proposed to not implement the legislation with retrospective effect, besides relaxing the requirements of consent from landowners, and tightening the definition of market value. The amended Bill has been rechristened 'The...

-Live Mint The much-awaited land acquisition Bill seems to be in jeopardy with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government rejecting a parliamentary standing committee’s suggestion the government should not acquire land for public-private-partnership (PPP) projects. But it has accepted that land procured for special economic zones (SEZs) and some defence projects cannot be exempted from the purview of a land acquisition Bill and promised to amend other laws pertaining to purchase...