-The Telegraph   Calcutta High Court today scrapped a 14-year-old tribunal that had been hearing all land and tenancy disputes involving the state government, saying the judiciary’s minority status in the set-up ran contrary to the Constitution. Today’s order means that the nearly 1 lakh cases pending with the tribunal will be shifted to the high court. The former Left Front government had enacted the West Bengal Land Reforms and Tenancy Act, 1997,...

There will soon be a new set of glass doors at Krishi Bhavan. The newly elevated Cabinet Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh plans to bring the doors — a signature element of his interior décor right from his early days at the Commerce Ministry — to his new office. Over the last two tumultuous years at the Environment Ministry, those doors have symbolised the transparency and accessibility he claims...

-The Deccan Herald "Law is misused for business interests." There is reason for serious concern over the aggressive acquisition of farm land by the Karnataka government on behalf of corporates. It has notified 3,382 acres in Halligudi in Gadag district where Korean steel giant Posco proposes to set up a 6 million tonne per annum integrated steel plant and a 450-mw captive power plant. Farmers in the area, whose lands have been...

Farmers are caught between Mayawati’s promises, Rahul Gandhi’s idealism and mounting debts Land acquisition policy in Uttar Pradesh has been changed at least five times in the past five years to benefit the farmers. Amidst the raging controversies over what should be the land compensation rate and debates and protests over the various clauses of the land acquisition policy, most farmers have lost more than they could gain from Mayawati’s new...

This is a unique situation. For governments, development authorities, lenders and borrowers alike. On Wednesday, a Supreme Court (SC) Bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi upheld a verdict of the Allahabad High Court that quashed acquisition of 176 hectares of land from farmers in Greater Noida stating that the authorities were “sub-serving” private builders in the name of public interest. Land purchased from the government was always considered ‘clean’. This verdict,...