-The Telegraph   The talks to draft the Lok Pal bill appeared to have hit a wall after the civil society members stayed away from today’s meeting and left the field open for the government to raise the issue of civility. The government, whose representatives went ahead with the meeting, asked the Anna Hazare-led group not to derail proceedings by “raising extraneous issues” and publicly abusing ministers. “We have been called cheats, frauds,...

“Right to privacy,” like other fundamental rights in the Constitution and statutory rights under various laws, will soon become a reality. Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily indicated that a bill in this regard would be introduced in the monsoon session. The Right to Privacy Bill (a copy is with The Hindu) is to provide for such a right to citizens of India and to regulate collection, maintenance, use and dissemination of...

-PTI   CPI has refused to answer a questionnaire on provisions of Lokpal Bill sent by the government, saying it will state their views and suggestions during the discussion on the issue in Parliament. In a letter to joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee chairman and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, party general secretary A B Bardhan said at no stage were the political parties involved or ever consulted during the entire process of...

-The Deccan Chronicle   Acquiring farmers’ lands for industrial and other non-agricultural uses has been a cause of tension and unrest in different parts of the country in recent years. If Singur in West Bengal dramatically made history and firmly placed Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamul Congress in the lead in the politics of the state, the recent case of the twin villages of Bhatta-Parsaul at Noida in Uttar Pradesh, not...

Having had to face a series of farmers' protest and flak from Opposition parties over the acquisition of land for development and expressway projects in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Mayawati has announced that all future land transactions will be clinched directly between the farmers and the private developers by adopting a “consensual approach.” “The role of the government now would be that of a facilitator only, limited to issuing a notification...