-The Hindu     The Land Act leaves plenty of room for States and the Centre to bypass it and acquire land under other laws that do not provide adequate compensation and rehabilitation The amended version of the Land Acquisition Act has been passed, but it does not entirely settle the issues of dubious takeover of land and failure to pay fair compensation. Although renamed the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday ushered in a fresh dose of electoral reforms by ruling that no one can contest elections without making a full and honest disclosure about his/her assets and educational and criminal antecedents. Curbing the practice among candidates to leave columns demanding information blank in the affidavits filed along with nomination papers, the court authorized returning officers to demand relevant details and reject...

-The Hindu The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General underscoring the blatant violation of conservation laws and Supreme Court orders in the diversion of forests for destructive non-forestry use confirms what former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said about the system: it's a bit of a joke. The compensatory afforestation mechanism instituted to balance the devastating loss of natural forests has failed abysmally. The CAG's report is proof that India's...

-Outlook Kochi: Around 25,000 gram panchayats across India will be networked by 2014 end as part of the National Optical Fibre Network programme in the first such scheme to connect so many people, Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal said here today. "This project would be the first of its kind in the world launched by any government connecting such a large population," he said after inaugurating 'Vidya Jyothi,' an initiative of...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Unlike recent Parliament sessions when a large part of the sittings were complete washouts, the just-ended monsoon session saw passage of 10 legislations including UPA's flagship bills - food security and land acquisition. An official statement from parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath listed details of bills passed by both the Houses and legislations that were cleared separately by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Nath had said...