-IANS   Alleging that there was forcible land acquisition at Rajarhat in the city's outskirts during the Left Front's tenure, the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government Tuesday decided to halt the distribution of land. 'I held talks with our chief minister. It has been decided to hold up the further processing of distribution of land. We will review the distribution process conducted from Dec 1, 2010,' Housing Minister Shyamapada Mukherjee told reporters...

The Centre could bring in a mechanism to stop entities from acquiring land beyond the project requirement, a practice which is at the heart of corruption and anger among landowners as seen in western UP. An amendment to the Land Acquisition Act could cap the maximum land to be acquired for different categories of projects or could install a process to check the feasibility of the demand for land. Acquisitions...

Brajendra Ghosh (45), a farmer, committed suicide allegedly by consuming pesticide at Durmut village in Mangalkote on Sunday morning. He was declared dead on arrival at the Katwa Hospital. In the recent past, several cases of farmer suicides have come to light. But this is the first such case due to debt in the rice bowl of the state after the new government led by Mamata Banerjee stormed into power....

If the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council's (NAC) recommendation — to involve the government for 100% acquisition of land — is accepted by the Centre to formulate its Land Acquisition Bill, the UPA could face an opposition from its biggest ally Trinamool Congress. However, West Bengal chief minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee is confident that her party's stand is clearly known to the PM and the Centre will take...

‘Law needed to monitor selection of party candidates' West Bengal ahead of other four States which contested Assembly elections Despite promises of women's participation, mere134 of 1,263 candidates women Thirty-five per cent of the MLAs elected in the recently concluded Assembly elections in West Bengal have criminal cases pending against them as against an average of 33 per cent of those in the four other States that underwent Assembly elections, according to the...