In a setback for UPA, the much-awaited bill on land acquisition has been pushed back to the Budget session.

The new Land Bill — cleared by the Union Cabinet last week — gives the government an ‘option’ to return the acquired land to its original owners if it remains unutilised for 60 months.

Land owners can then transfer such land acquired by the government for its own use or PPP projects involving public purpose to any private entity/individuals. At its earlier deliberations, the rural development ministry, the nodal body for the land Bill, had rejected the suggestions of a Parliamentary panel for returning the unutilised land to original owners.

The Centre’s current food subsidy burden stands at roughly Rs. 90,000 crores, which will shoot up to `1,10,000 crores if the proposed provisions of the Food Bill are implemented.

“We are expecting the ministry of rural development to wrap up their ongoing Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) by the first quarter of the next year by which we expect to get the parliamentary nod for the Food Bill also. Thus, we will be in a position to roll out the legal foodgrain entitlement effectively based on fresh data on economic deprivation,” said a senior official.

A provision in the law is going to impact a large number of people who have been protesting against acquisition of land for decades

The land Bill to be tabled in Parliament this week would renew hope for ‘victims’ of many a pending land acquisition case, forcing project owners to pay fresh compensation to evacuees. It is also feared that it would open a Pandora’s Box of litigation, as well as reopen cases that are decades old. The provision in Clause 24 of the law is going to impact a large number of people who have been protesting against acquisition of their land for decades, in places such as Chhindwara and the Narmada valley in Madhya Pradesh and also in Odisha, not to mention Uttar Pradesh’s Bhatta-Parsaul, a place whose cause was taken up by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi himself. Hence, the Bill is set to be a pre-election bonanza for many aggrieved people.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today took a slew of important economic decisions, clearing a proposal to set up a Cabinet Committee on Investment to expedite approvals t

The contentious National Board on Investment (NIB) got the Cabinet nod today, albeit in a new avatar-Cabinet Committee on Investment.

With this body, the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure will be wound up, officials said. The Cabinet Committee on Investment will be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and will fast-track approval to projects of over Rs 1,000 crore, initially infrastructure ones. The committee assumes importance as India's economic growth slipped sub-six per cent for three quarters in a row till the second quarter of the financial year. Stepping up investment rate assumes importance to make the economy grow faster.

The Cabinet today cleared the controversial Land Acquisition Bill, making it mandatory to seek the consent of 80 per cent of affected landowners in case their land is acquired by private players.

In the latest flip-flop on the Land Acquisition Bill, which is slated to be discussed by the Union Cabinet on Thursday, the Rural Development Ministry has again diluted the consent provisions, reportedly against the wishes of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

According to sources in the government, the latest version of the Bill requires the consent of only 70 per cent of land owners when the government acquires land for a public-private partnership (PPP) project. For all other types of projects, 80 per cent consent will be required.

Exhibition “Breaking Margins” inaugurated to mark the UN Human Rights Day

Unless manual scavenging becomes a social movement, we will continue to take this issue for granted. Unless we get a sense of anger and affront to our dignity that this despicable and abhorrent practice is continuing even to this day, this malaise will continue,” said Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh. Inaugurating an exhibition “Breaking Margins” at British Council here on Monday to mark the UN Human Rights Day, Mr. Ramesh admitted that the subject of manual scavenging was the most shameful symbol which cannot be attributed to the colonial legacy.

Union Minister Jairam Ramesh today suggested states to replicate Jharkhand's performance in MNREGA under which it has constructed 78,000 wells in the last two years.

"(As many as) 78,000 wells have been dug in the last two years, which is a record. I have suggested (the state) to put the (construction) details in the website," the Rural Development Minister told reporters here.