-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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Chit-fund scam: Saradha agents lay siege to Mamata house -Saibal Sen & Caesar Mandal
-The Times of India KOLKATA: Bengal is sitting on a powder keg. And the fuse could well have been lit on Friday as a 33-year-old agent of Saradha Group, a chit fund company that has gone bust, committed suicide being unable to pay his depositors while over 3,000 agents laid siege to chief minister Mamata Banerjee's residence in protest against the lockdown. The turn of events has triggered fears of a repeat...
More »RTI activists seek more teeth to whistleblower law
-The Times of India With over 16 activists killed and thousands under attack or threatened, RTI activists have demanded a stronger whistleblower law, including provisions for accountability and compensation for victims. The Whistleblowers Protection Bill is likely to come up in Parliament in the budget session starting next week. But activists feel that the Bill in its present form is not strong enough to prevent deaths. National Campaign for People's Right to...
More »Chits come home to roost
-The Telegraph Calcutta: From Mamata Banerjee's backyard in Harish Chatterjee Street to Contai in East Midnapore, a contagion of protests is spreading in several parts of Bengal. Funds collection agents of the Saradha Group are besieging the seats of power with appeals to step in and avert a run on the chit fund-fuelled company since the Trinamul government was seen as the undeclared gilt-edged guarantor during the good times. Trinamul lent credence to...
More »Police report junks Trinamool claims on violence -Madhuparna Das
-The Indian Express A report prepared by West Bengal Police on political violence in the aftermath of the April 9 heckling of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by SFI supporters in Delhi said as many as 149 CPM party offices were ransacked and damaged by "Trinamool Congress supporters and followers". The report was submitted to the Home Department, which is headed by Banerjee, last week. The report refutes claims made by Trinamool Congress ministers...
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