-The Indian Express Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has directed sugar factories to pay a minimum price of Rs 2,650 per quintal for sugarcane to defuse the ongoing farmers' agitation that has stalled the functioning of sugar factories across the state. In the light of the announcement, State Minister for Cooperation and Markets Harshvardhan Patil has urged Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) leader Raju Shetty (MP) to take measures to withdraw the agitation in...

-The Telegraph Thiruvananthapuram: The Centre's move to implement an ecology panel's report on conservation of the Western Ghats has provoked a call for a 48-hour civil disobedience agitation by the Catholic Church in Kerala, starting Sunday midnight. The Church claims the K. Kasturirangan report, notified on Wednesday, will hit the livelihoods of farmers living in the "high ranges" - foothill areas bordering the forests - and force them to relocate. Green activists deny...

-Economic and Political Weekly   Much work remains to be done if the new Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act has to mark a meaningful shift for India's adivasi communities. Chitrangada Choudhury (chitrangada@csds.in) Chitrangada Choudhury (chitrangada@csds.in) is a multimedia journalist and researcher, and currently with the Publics and Policies program at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi. Among the worst excesses committed in India's six decade-old democracy, the forcible displacment...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD/ VIJAYAWADA: With another round of talks between the government and protesters failing to end the impasse over bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the misery of denizens is increasing every minute across strife-torn Seemandhra. From a foundry worker in Vijayawada to an upper middle class banker in Visakhapatnam, the two-month strike, which has gathered more steam now has spared none, with heartrending stories of people suffering across the roiled...

-The Hindu Most of the acquisitions by the Central government and public sector companies in the country's resource-rich State are under laws that bypass the new land Bill The UPA has claimed the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Bill 2013 passed by both Houses will reduce forcible acquisition and help tackle Naxalism in mineral-rich areas. But with Coal Bearing Areas Acquisition and Development (CBA)...