‘Employment generation’ is the rationale used by every government official from the prime minister to the land acquisition officer to justify the displacement of people for industrial projects. Farmers are aware they are masters of their land but servants of a company. As for compensation, Basu Behera of Noriyasahi, a POSCO project-affected village, said: “I cultivate betel vines, kaju, about 50 quintals of rice yearly and I get coconuts, pineapples, mangoes....

Signs of softening of stand by management and workers The deadlock at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant continued on Sunday amid signs of a softening of stand by both the management and workers. Nearly 2,000 workers are currently on the ninth day of a stay-in strike. While the talks held on Saturday night between Haryana Labour Minister Shiv Charan Lal Sharma and trade union representatives failed to break the impasse, another round of...

-The Economic Times   The Haryana government on Friday imposed a ban on the week-long workers' strike at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant by passing prohibitory orders, seeking to find a solution through legal recourse to the issue which threatens to spiral into a labour unrest in India's biggest auto hub. Despite the government mounting pressure by deploying additional police force at the factory on late Friday evening, workers have decided to continue...

-The United Nations   More than half of the world’s estimated 215 million child labourers are engaged in hazardous work which puts them risk of injury, illness or death, the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) said in a new report unveiled today. The report, “Children in hazardous work: what we know, what we need to do,” cites studies from both industrialised and developing countries that indicate that a child labourer suffers...

When it was almost certain that the governments of the country were to take their hands off from total acquisition of land for a private project, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has started thinking otherwise. The thought went out for hundred per cent acquisition by the government. Had this come at the germinal stage of discussion about changes in the colonial Act, it could have resulted in Mamata Banerjee’s face...