A group of 91 retired bureaucrats has appealed to the Centre to withdraw the Green Credits programme, which they claimed may facilitate diversion of forest land to private entities. "Quick, smooth and easy diversion of our forest lands in favour of user agencies is apparently the sole intention of this set of Green Credits rules. "We urge the MOEFCC to recognise this danger and withdraw the Green Credits notification expeditiously," the group of former civil servants wrote in an open letter to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
The Congress party on Tuesday vowed to oppose the present format of the land bill both inside the Parliament and outside.
In a rapprochement three years after they split, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday shared stage with Anna Hazare on the second and final day of the Gandhian's protest against the contentious land acquisition ordinance while accusing the Modi government of adopting anti-people policies.
Farmers protesting to press the Centre for their various demands will stay put at the two protest sites on the Punjab-Haryana border till February 29 when the next course of action will be decided, their leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said on Friday.
"We are not averse to more amendments to the Land Bill provided they are good," he said.
Promoters have not proved they mean well for the community.
Social activist Anna Hazare on Saturday said he has decided to suspend his agitation scheduled on October 2 in New Delhi as the Central government allowed the Land Ordinance to lapse and implemented the One Rank One Pension OROP) for ex-servicemen.
'The BJP's numbers in this government are almost the same as those enjoyed by the Congress under P V Narasimha Rao when the reform process was kicked off in 1991.' 'As before, the only constraints on the prime minister's actions are internal, not external.' 'They come from his own assessment of the political consequences of any action,' points out Mihir S Sharma.
The prime minister made it clear that the BJP stood for the welfare of farmers and was committed to them
Bharatiya Janata Party termed the Haryana government's approval to the land deal between Robert Vadra and DLF as its "parting gift" to the Gandhi family and questioned the Bhupinder Singh Hooda dispensation for displaying "haste" in clearing it.
Land acquisition issues & costs a big query; Cidco wants these fully addressed before calling preliminary bids.
Union Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda on Tuesday said a law guaranteeing minimum support price (MSP) on crops cannot be brought in a hurry without consulting all stakeholders and urged the protesting farmer groups to have a structured discussion with the government on the issue.
Maharashtra minister pleads for stay on land acquisition.
Amit Shah said Congress cannot mislead people as they know who took away farmers' land and benefited business houses by giving away spectrum and coal mines in the past
A series of mega projects that have faced bottlenecks and which the Cabinet Committee on Investments has to clear.
'Tensions and dialogue are likely to go hand-in-hand with China.' 'The goal should be to cultivate power so that one can negotiate from a position of strength.'
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said that land acquisition should not result in loss of fertile land. Farmers should be provided adequate compensation, she said. "Development is necessary but the interest of farmers should also be protected," she said."We must protect the environment to ensure sustainable development. In whatever we do, we should not forget the forest and environment," said Gandhi.
The Vishwaguru who addressed the maximum rallies and boasted of being blessed with divine energy, who promised guarantees in his own name, turned out finally not invincible, points out Jyoti Punwani.
According to the government sanction, the fresh manpower will be utilised for manning 47 new border posts and a dozen 'staging camps' or troops bases along this frontier.
The finance minister is out attracting investment in the country but in absence of a land acquisition policy; foreign investment will continue to suffer as it did in case of Posco and Vedanta.
Those who have 'sold their souls to outsiders from Gujarat' are insulting the Nandigram movement by playing the communal card, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday, and rejected the claim that she was an outsider in Nandigram.
The BJP released its first list of 57 candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls and fielded Suvendu Adhikari from his home turf of Nandigram, from where Trinamool Congress president and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already announced her candidature.
Coal, land, insurance bills are cited as govt's commitment to reforms.
This is another blow to Modi's ambitious economic reform agenda that has been stalled by a logjam in parliament
Industry body CII on Thursday made a case for pushing reforms in sectors like land, labour, and agriculture by the Modi 3.0 government to accelerate economic growth, which is estimated to be around 8 per cent in the current financial year. CII president Sanjiv Puri said a lot of policy interventions in the past have put the economy on "a much stronger wicket". "The growth rate is poised to touch 8 per cent during the current year, marking the fourth consecutive year of above 7 per cent + growth.
"Stoppage of land acquisition for the time being should not be considered as a deadlock over Posco project," he said, adding the district administration of Jagatsinghpur had been assigned the responsibilities of motivating people in support of the mega steel project.
The Gandhian activist threatened to go ahead with a nation-wide 'jail bharo andolan' if the government does not pay heed to the demands.
The high court of Jharkhand on Friday granted bail to former chief minister Hemant Soren in a money laundering case linked to a land scam.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday accused the Congress of fuelling farmers' protests on the issue of land acquisition and said her political opponents were hatching a conspiracy to weaken her party.
The Maharashtra cabinet on Wednesday decided to name the proposed international music college in Mumbai after legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar, who died recently, a state minister said.
He requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make an announcement that the farm loans would be waived, while a mechanism for the same could be worked out later.
Out of a total amount of Rs 119 crore earmarked for giving compensation to the land-owners, Rs 83 crore had already been disbursed, the report said.
Land acquisition costs have gone up to almost 50% of total project cost.
"The government's duty is to end violence. The mindless killing by the Naxals must end. If they are ready to give up arms, we will initiate talks to address their concerns," Chidambaram said.
Here is the chronology of events in the Ayodhya Ram temple issue.
Terming the state government notifications made for the land acquisition for the proposed university as illegal, a division bench comprising Chief Justice V Gopalgowda and Justice B P Das directed the company on Tuesday to return the awarded land to the original owners.
Dismissing adverse comments on Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) buy, Ratan Tata on Tuesday said the $2.3-billion acquisition of the iconic brands was 'worthwhile' though the subsequent financial crisis posed challenges.
'We completed Rs 17 trillion worth of projects in the first term and currently Rs 9 trillion worth of contracts are under construction.'
Fourteen persons were killed in the firing on a demonstration against land acquisition on March 14, leading to a nationwide outrage and the Calcutta high court 'suo motu' ordering a CBI investigation.
The cost overruns were because of rise in prices of construction materials, delay in land acquisition, utility shifting and obtaining clearances from forest/environment, he said during Question Hour. Poor performance of some contractors and law and order problems in some states were some other reasons.
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