For third straight day on Sunday, the standoff between protestors and the armed police at Dhinkia village the entry point to Posco project site continued without bloodshed though the Orissa government on Friday had declared the assembly as unlawful and hinted at action if the protesters continued to restrict the officials' movement. Land acquisition officials backed by about 800 armed police have so far not been able to enter the...

-The Telegraph   The Raj Bhavan secretariat had expressed “procedural doubts” about the now-discarded Singur ordinance on Thursday and the governor had signed it only after an assurance from minister Partha Chatterjee that the law department had not come across any potential red flags, Writers’ Buildings sources said today. The government had to drop the ordinance yesterday because it is unconstitutional to promulgate one while the Assembly is in session. It decided...

-NDTV   Protests continue to intensify against land acquisition for the proposed 12 billion dollar POSCO plant in Govindpur in Orissa. After warning the government of dire consequences in a statement on Friday, five political parties including the CPI, CPM and even civil society activists are expected to join in the protests. Nearly 2000 women, children and men have formed a human barricade to prevent the entry of police and administration in...

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee faced a major embarrassment on Friday as she was forced to put on hold an ordinance restoring land in Singur to farmers. The state government on Friday instead proposed to table a Bill in the legislative assembly on Tuesday so that the land in Singur-currently the site of an abandoned Tata Motors factory-can eventually be given back to farmers. "The ordinance that was promulgated on...

-The Telegraph   Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today said the state government had “taken back” through an ordinance the 997.11 acres lying with the Tatas and vendors in Singur to fulfil the promise of returning plots to disgruntled farmers. The dramatic announcement evoked studied silence from the Tatas, sounded the death knell for the agreement the business group signed with the erstwhile Left government and triggered hair-splitting that raised questions about the...