Allotment of gram sabha land to private persons illegal Ponds, tanks which served communities for years encroached upon Taking a serious view of illegal and unauthorised encroachments on government poromboke land, the Supreme Court has directed all the State governments to prepare schemes for eviction of such occupants of gram sabha/panchayat/poromboke/shamlat land and restore them to the gram sabha/panchayat for the common use of villagers. A Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan...

The country’s top court has warned states against allotting gram sabha land to private persons and commercial enterprises and then “regularising” such illegal encroachment in return for money. In a ruling last week, the Supreme Court said such land was for the common use of villagers and directed chief secretaries to prepare schemes to evict “UNSCrupulous” trespassers who had grabbed land using muscle power or political clout. “In many states, government orders...

With the order of district deputy registrar Harishchandra Hussey to 16 Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees in 16 talukas to submit a report on the details of cotton purchase made by them during the current season, the spree of buying cotton from door to door in the villages by the private players is set to stand exposed. The price of cotton has increased to Rs 6,000 per quintal in recent past. Expecting...

Biometric cards for free medical care VS puts the blame on UNSCientific spraying Says Centre should give matching relief Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Friday inaugurated the disbursal of enhanced pension and biometric cards to persons afflicted with serious ailments and permanent disabilities suspected to be caused by the aerial spraying of Endosulfan on the cashew estates of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) in the district. The biometric card will make them...

The economy shows consistent signs of growth. The challenge in the new year is to make development more equitable and broad-based… 2010 was a year of relief that soon grew into despondency. We were relieved that India had pulled out of the deepest post-War recession relatively UNSCathed. The soundness of its cautious macro-economic management was underlined once again and the US economy is also looking like getting slowly back on...