-Outlook A new land acquisition bill readies for budget session. How will it fare? Bill Of Blights Defines “public purpose” too broadly, allows govt to acquire land for PPPs Less landowner consent required for PPPs than private-only projects The bill’s compensation norms likely to face strict challenges in the courts States have been given R&R powers but could lead to arbitrary outcomes Doesn’t consider govt projects where compensation, R&R are neglected *** The...
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UPA flagship NREGS records sharp slide in job generation -Subodh Varma
-The Times of India While Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh waxed eloquent on the "success" of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and called it a key instrument for "financial inclusion" at a government conference in New Delhi on Saturday, latest data reveal a picture of declining employment generation under the scheme. Even more startling: Jobs created for the most marginalized sections - dalits and adivasis - have...
More »The Nandy Bully-S Anand
-Outlook The sorts of corruption that matter are a purview of privileged “An intellectual man can be a good man but he may easily be a rogue. Similarly an intellectual class may be a band of high-souled persons, ready to help, ready to emancipate erring humanity, or it may easily be a gang of crooks or a body of advocates of narrow clique from which it draws its support.” —B.R....
More »Bengal always a laggard in job guarantee scheme -Dwaipayan Ghosh
-The Times of India KOLKATA: While the country celebrates the seventh anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Bengal continues to be one of the poor performers. The Paschimbanga Khet Majdoor Union alleges that a group of vested interests, "comprising landed farmers, industrialists and a section of the intelligentsia" were working in tandem to subvert the positives of NREGA in the state. The union, which has criticized both the...
More »One more step towards food security-Himanshu
-Live Mint Parliamentary committee’s proposals on the food security Bill are an improvement over the original The standing committee of Parliament, set up to examine the National Food Security Bill (NFSB), has finally given its recommendations. With this, the Bill has moved one step closer to seeing daylight. The recommendations, which are not binding on the government, will now be considered by the Union cabinet before being put to vote in Parliament. The...
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