-The Indian Express Why we need to revisit the 74th Amendment The National Panchayati Raj Day to mark the enactment of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment was observed on April 24 with due ceremony but little hype. Whatever the reasons for the celebration, even those are not available for the 74th Amendment dealing with municipalities. The Government of India's first line of defence on this issue is that these are state subjects. Nevertheless, the...
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Distress outside Sen panel office -Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay
-The Indian Express FOR Suranjan and Tumpa Choudhury, a couple from Madhyamgram in North 24-Parganas district, darkness has descended for the second time in their lives. In 2007, Suranja lost his job after the factory, where he worked shut down abruptly. He was then 36. A friend of him advised him to invest in Saradha Group and become an agent of the company. He had no other option than to accept...
More »Why students need the right to copy-Shamnad Basheer
-The Hindu The lawsuit by publishers seeking to stop Delhi University from distributing photocopied course packs goes against the spirit of education for all Late last year, leading publishing houses including Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press brought a copyright action against Delhi University and a tiny photocopy shop licensed by it, seeking to restrain them from supplying educational course packs to students. This lawsuit sent shock waves across the...
More »Land Bill misses ground picture -Sanjoy Chakravorty
-The Hindu Business Line The Bill does not take into account the extremely varied nature of land markets. It looks like the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation And Resettlement Bill is going to be finally presented in Parliament for passage in the current session. The full details of what is in the current Bill aren't known because over 150 amendments may have been made to the last version that was available for public scrutiny. But...
More »Illusory rights -Venkitesh Ramakrishnan and Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
-Frontline PESA, which is seen as an enabling law for tribal self-governance, is violated brazenly by both the Union government and State governments in the name of development. SINCE October 2012, the Ministry of Rural Development of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has apparently been engaged in an exercise to evolve a "National Land Reforms Policy". Over these months, the Ministry wrote to various State governments, highlighting the importance of...
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