West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee moves closer to keeping her promise to return to ‘unwilling' farmers the land given to Tata Motors. WITH the passage of the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill, 2011, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee got one step closer to keeping the promise made to the people of Singur that she would reclaim the land allocated to Tata Motors and return it to “unwilling” farmers (that...

The episodes of violence in land acquisition by the government, as witnessed recently in Bhatta-Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh and in other states earlier, occur because patterns of violence are inbuilt into the process. Despite a bill pending in Parliament since 2007, there has been little effort by political parties to evolve a consensus on acquisition of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. The law as at present and also the provisions...

Police directed to admit him in hospital Arrested RTI activist and farmers' leader Akhil Gogoi was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days by a court here on Sunday, after he spent three days in police custody. But the court of chief judicial magistrate directed the police to immediately admit Mr. Gogoi in the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital for treatment of backache and other ailments of which he complained. It directed...

One of the most shameful pieces of legislation in our penal code is the continuance of ‘Sedition’ in Section 124A of the Penal Code which provides that whoever excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government established by law in India shall be punished with imprison-ment for life. The expression disaffection includes disloyalty and all feelings of enmity. This provision was included by the British Government in 1870 as...

Land acquisition by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board for the proposed steel plant by South Korean steel giant Posco in Gadag district has run into rough weather. The main reasons for the villagers' opposition are that 3,300 acres identified for the project in Halligudi village off National Highway 63, about 500km from Bangalore, are fertile land and agriculture is the villagers' only source of income. KIADB special land acquisition...