-PTI After the big-bang reforms, Law Minister Salman Khurshid today indicated government's keenness to push bills on food security and land acquisition, insisting that even Mamata Banerjee will not be able to oppose them. He maintained that "the bills drive a deft political balance between populism and reforms". "The draft (food security) Bill is being given the final touches by the Cabinet. This will ensure that poor will have their stomachs full. Nobody...
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Notifying Farming as an Essential Service: An Authoritarian Manoeuvre-SAHRDC
-Economic and Political Weekly The Government of India is considering a proposal to notify farming as an essential service. This is ostensibly to bring drought relief to farmers suffering from a weak monsoon - a laudable goal indeed. However, if farming is deemed an "essential service", farmers and farm workers could lose many of their political and civic rights because the government can then invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act to...
More »Developing a land acquisition policy for India-Dilip Mookherjee and Maitreesh Ghatak
-Live Mint The current policy on compensating landowners could adversely affect character of India’s future growth The Parliament is currently considering a land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement Bill (LARR Bill), as are various state legislatures. These are likely to affect the pace and character of future growth in India in a significant way. Setting up new industries, service establishments and real estate development will inevitably require land to be acquired from rural areas....
More »In relief for Mamata government, Supreme Court extends stay of verdict in Singur case -J Venkatesan
-The Hindu The West Bengal government got a major relief on Friday when the Supreme Court extended the interim order of suspension of the Calcutta High Court judgment that struck down the law intended to reclaim Singur land leased out to the Tatas and to give a part of it back to farmers who were yet to receive compensation for it. The High Court, while delivering judgment on June 22, suspended the...
More »Singur Land Row: SC Issues Notice to Tata Motors
-PTI The Supreme Court today sought response of Tata Motors on a special leave petition filed by the West Bengal government challenging the quashing of the Singur Land Acquisition Act by the state high court. A bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad, however, said that the Calcutta High Court's interim order which had stated that the state need not part with the land for two months to allow...
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