-The Telegraph   The Centre may just have achieved its objective in calling today’s all-party meeting on the Lokpal bill: a consensus among political parties over Parliament’s primacy in lawmaking. All the parties stressed that the government must follow parliamentary procedures, with some criticising it for engaging with Anna Hazare’s group. But though everyone agreed on the need for a strong Lokpal, the parties differed on its provisions, especially on whether the Prime...

-The Telegraph   Mamata Banerjee today announced that her government would not acquire land at New Town in Rajarhat anymore. “There will be no further acquisition of land in Rajarhat-New Town,” the chief minister said this evening after a meeting with housing minister Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. Labour minister Purnendu Bose, the vice-chairperson of the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco), its managing director Saurabh Das and law minister Malay Ghatak were also present. Mamata...

-The Times of India   Unperturbed over the stiff protest against the proposed Posco steel plant, the Orissa government on Tuesday said it would start project-related work in areas already acquired in Jagatsinghpur district. The government, however, suspended further land acquisition for the time being. "We have already acquired 1,800 acres of land for the proposed plant near Paradip and are beginning project-related work in the area already acquired," said chief...

-The Telegraph Tata Motors has “abandoned” the Singur project, according to the draft of a state government bill that seeks to take over the entire land leased out to the company and prospective vendors. If the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill, 2011, gets passed in the Assembly without any changes to the draft, it will be a matter of official record that the project has “in fact been abandoned by the...

-The Indian Express   Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was simply stating the obvious on Sunday when he said, “Parliament is supreme.” Neither did he depart from a common understanding of the scheme of things under our Constitution when he clarified that it is Parliament’s right to decide on legislation and nobody else can presume to lay down deadlines for bills to be passed. Yet, such had been the abdication of argument...