Land is the most important ingredient for the development of real estate and infrastructure. For quite some time now, land acquisition had become a contentious issue in the country, which has threatened not only the industrial development but also planned growth of cities in the country. In this backdrop, the central government's decision to introduce a Land Acquisition Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament will go a long way...

Bringing an aggressive outlook to the ministry of rural development, Jairam Ramesh, who took charge of the portfolio in July, has attempted to address and fast-track contentious issues such as the proposed land acquisition legislation and the census for identifying households below the poverty line (BPL). Ramesh spoke in an interview about his blueprint for the ministry and revisiting controversial elements, including identifying the poor and poverty caps imposed by...

The Mamata Banerjee government wants the Centre to include in the draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill provisions of the Bengal’s land ceiling law, which caps holdings by industry at 24.88 acres. State cabinet sources also said the government would not accept any special economic zone (SEZ) and ask the Centre make its position clear on such enclaves, which typically require large tracts, in the bill. The recommendations were...

You said that the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies conducted a survey asking people what they felt about street protest. What did you find? One of the first national representative surveys was the National Election Study held in 1971. This is when a protest culture was beginning to take shape in the country. There was the Naxalite movement and also a time when the Congress was dislodged for the...

• Without a clear definition of ‘public purpose’, the Land Acquisition Bill is meaningless • The bill’s definition of ‘fertile land’ can potentially harm the agriculture sector • Government’s role in defining land will create economic and political problems in future As Parliament debates this month it will, hopefully, move beyond issues of corruption in high places to important economic legislation. Two such pieces of legislation are the Land Acquisition Bill and...