KORAPUT: Tension gripped Hindalco Maliparbat mines following a group clash between two groups of workers. Six persons were injured. Police have arrested 18 persons and forwarded them to court.

Rituparna Bhuyan / New Delhi July 21, 2008, 0:23 IST

Land acquisition for special economic zones (SEZs) is stuck because of a year-old directive by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) that bars state governments from carrying out compulsory acquisition of land for the zones.

The EGoM in April 2007 had said that state governments cannot acquire land for SEZs, in the backdrop of protests in places like Nandigram in West Bengal, and Maharashtra.

Studying the data spread over 23 years (1981-2003), the Food and Agriculture Organisation has concluded that 24 per cent of the global land area has degraded. This is over and above the extent of land that had already degraded. The situation has only worsened since 1991 when the previous assessment was made. According to the FAO, in India about 592,000 square kilometres of land has deteriorated

FOLLOWING a decision to develop unused real estates with private parties, the Indian Postal department has now identified 1,800 locations including land that may either be sold off to private parties or commercially developed in joint venture with them. To this effect, the department is also mulling a separate company

More fruit yield in trees was noticed To meet the growing demand for food, the scope for further addition to area under agriculture and horticulture are possible only through the exploitation of drylands under wasteland environment. Wastelands are degraded and undulated lands. And they have low water holding capacity. Rainfall in wasteland is generally low and highly erratic and largely vulnerable to runoff and seepage losses. Rainwater harvesting

NH-57 land acquisition Six government officials arrested, four absconding The state Vigilance Department has unearthed a Rs one crore scam in the land acquisition process for the East-West Corridor along the National Highway-57 in Madhubani. Illegal payments have been made allegedly in at least 30 cases. The department has booked 10 government officials, including Madhubani Land Acquisition officer Shyam Kishore Prasad in this connection.

: Sindh Minister for Works and Services Manzoor Hussain Wassan has said that more than 20,000 acres of government land in Nara taluka was distributed illegally to different people by the previous government during the past seven years. He said the government would initiate an inquiry into the matter and action would be taken against those found involved in such acts. He was speaking at an open katchehry and talking to journalists at circuit house here on Monday.

The people of Dambuk, Kalabari Dambuk, Balukaguri and Amguri Dambuk have flayed the process of land acquisition from Meahaki Tiniali to Dambuk embankment for Bogibeel project at Balukabari land block in the northern bank of the Brahmaputra under Sissi revenue block.

Rampant encroachment on the Kusumtola farm land has raised eyebrows among the people of Naduar in Sonitpur district. It may be noted that to provide shelter to unemployed youths of the area, the Government of Assam had established the farm in the 1980s. More than 200 bighas of land has been alloted to the farm at Borigaon Ghopshar vide dag No. 357/279 and 401/420 of Borbhogia mouza under Naduar circle office.