-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...

When all failed, a police lathicharge did the trick. Farmers of Akaltara village were protesting against land acquisition for a month, but only after the police beat them up and arrested 78 men on a cold January evening, that things heated up. Opposition leaders rushed to the site and the government was forced to react. From Rs 8 lakh, compensation rates were hiked to Rs 17 lakh per acre. The...

The strike at the Maruti Suzuki plant shows workers’ rights is still a simmering issue Spanner In The...     * Labour disputes/strikes down from 250 in ’04-05 to under 100     * Strike by 3,000 Maruti workers found support from 65 unions across companies     * Trade unions assert workers’ right to form a union, or to decide which union to join     * Ashok Leyland, Hyundai, Honda Motorcycles, GM among those that have...

Only 400,000 jobs a year were generated during UPA-1, compared with 12 million annually during the NDA’s tenure Key economic data released by the government on Friday shows that the first stint of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) generated a mere 400,000 jobs a year, compared with 12 million jobs annually during the tenure of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). During the period 2004-05 to...

Classrooms give shelter to cows and buffaloes, while students sit outside in the compound. Children carry their own plates to school for mid-day meals and later rush back home on the pretext of washing the dishes, but never come back for classes. School management committees are told by teachers that no one has the right to seek any information from the school authorities. The scenario gets worse if the panchayat facilitators...