Those affected by land takeover for the proposed Navi Mumbai airport do not expect the Centre’s amended draft of the land acquisition legislation to change things much on their core demands.

The Project Affected Persons (PAPs) stand to lose 450 hectares for the project and, in return, want 35-40 per cent returned as developed land. They say they were not ready to accept the state government’s proposal of 12.5 per cent or up to 15 per cent developed land, plus monetary compensation of Rs 10 lakh a hectare.

With the Cabinet on Thursday clearing the proposal for constituting a Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) to fast-track large infrastructure projects along with the Land Acquisition Bill, India Inc is hopeful that the government would give the required push to make the first work effectively and ensure that the second doesn’t face roadblocks in Parliament.

Since the setting up of the CCI is an executive decision, the Cabinet’s decision is final and the government only needs to ensure that it works effectively and doesn’t end up like the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure that it has replaced. However, the Land Bill needs to be passed by Parliament and industry hopes for its smooth passage though it has some reservations on it.

Clause debarring judges from making verbal comments against any constitutional authority in open courts retained, with some change

The Cabinet today cleared the controversial Land Acquisition Bill, which also addresses disputed takeovers of the past and seeks to resolve these. The renamed Bill — The Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill — emphasises compensation for all land acquired and seeks to apply this with retrospective effect in all cases where takeovers are disputed or compensation is pending or disputed, sources said.

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.

The Land Acquisition Bill, which strengthens landowners’ rights during acquisition for development, has finally received the nod of the Union Cabinet, and is likely to be introduced in Parliament during the final week of the winter session.

The final version of The Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill was approved by the Cabinet on Thursday, more than a year after Parliament sent the earlier avatar to a Standing Committee. In the months since, the bill has gone through multiple changes, been vetted by Cabinet — where infrastructure ministries objected to provisions seen as hurdles to investment and industry — and been the subject of three rounds of discussion in a ministerial panel headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.

Amendments to the contentious land acquisition Bill not only seek to hasten the acquisition process through tight time-schedules but also contain a provision that virtually allows the law to be app

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.

The Delhi Jal Board escalated the cost of the public private partnership project being carried out in Nangloi to extend benefit to the private company that has been awarded the work, a non-government organisation opposing the PPP model has claimed.

The NGO, Citizen Front for Water Democracy, has alleged that the cost estimated for the work is higher than the prevailing market price and that the DJB has fabricated the data and actual figures of treatment of water at the Nangloi Water Treatment Plant.

Even as the Lower Suktel Action Committee has decided to intensify its agitation demanding execution of the Lower Suktel Irrigation Project, the State Government has announced that the project will

The ongoing agitation seeking swift relief and rehabilitation package for the hundreds of endosulfan victims has taken a curious turn with the victims and their families in the district sending letters to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking its intervention.

While several affected family members residing in remote villages sent the letters to the NHRC in their respective post offices, quite a few families under the aegis of Endosulfan Peeditha Janakeeya Munnai staged a march to the General Post Office here on Human Rights Day on Monday and sent individual letters to the NHRC.