Why is the ruling party unable to pass 3 very important bills? The National Advisory Council draws its exalted status from the fact that UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi heads it. But its inability to get its way on three new Bills indicates that its influence is waning. A couple of weeks ago, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) cleared the drafts of two significant Bills — the Food Security Bill and...
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India's Rural Poor Give up on Power Grid, Go Solar by Katy Daigle
Boommi Gowda used to fear the night. Her vision fogged by glaucoma, she could not see by just the dim glow of a kerosene lamp, so she avoided going outside where king cobras slithered freely and tigers carried off neighborhood dogs. But things have changed at Gowda's home in the remote southern village of Nada. A solar-powered lamp pours white light across the front of the mud-walled hut she shares with...
More »Land bill draft vetoes Mamata on govt role by Basant Kumar Mohanty
The Union rural development ministry has retained in the draft of an amendment a partial government role in land acquisition for private investors, vetoing the diametrically conflicting views of Mamata Banerjee and a panel headed by Sonia Gandhi. The draft finalised by the ministry to amend the land acquisition act has stuck to the 70-30 formula under which the private investor is expected to buy at least 70 per cent of...
More »The new land acquisition law must seek to reduce market distortions and segmentation by Bibek Debroy
Land is contentious. With urbanisation and demand for non-agricultural use, coupled with lack of employment and skills for those in small-holder and subsistence-level agriculture, this is understandable. In western Europe, especially in Britain, and more especially in England, land markets were freed up before the Industrial Revolution and access to education and skills became more broad-based. We haven't introduced reforms that enable people to move out of agriculture, or diversify...
More »Truth of 70:30 acquisition plan: Tribal farmers get Rs 2L, rich Rs 17L by Supriya Sharma
When all failed, a police lathicharge did the trick. Farmers of Akaltara village were protesting against land acquisition for a month, but only after the police beat them up and arrested 78 men on a cold January evening, that things heated up. Opposition leaders rushed to the site and the government was forced to react. From Rs 8 lakh, compensation rates were hiked to Rs 17 lakh per acre. The...
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