Bail industry out – CII wants government to reconsider land acquisition bill.
CII wants government to reconsider land acquisition bill.
THE Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has opposed the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill 2007 likely to be tabled in the next session of Parliament. The CII in a press release said it wants the government to reconsider the bill that mandates industries to acquire land on their own from farmers. According to the bill, the government will acquire only 30 per cent land and that too after the private sector acquires 70 per cent of the site allotted for industrial projects.
This will make it difficult for industry to set up projects, CII said. Assembling land from numerous owners is not a task which the corporate sector can undertake effectively. The government should retain its role of acquiring land for industrial development, as industrialization is key to job creation, CII said.
It further said that the clause ‘public purpose’ should empower the state to acquire land not only for infrastructure or defence purposes but also for developing land for economic activity. Continue reading »
Filed under Environment | Tags: Benefit Sharing, Farmers, India, Industry, Land, Land Acquisition, Land Ownership, Ministry Of Rural Development, Parliament | Comment (0)Pollution Not under Control
Parliamentary report calls for saving the Central pollution control body
It’s official. The Central Pollution Control Board (cpcb), the nodal body for regulating environmental norms in India, is being “reduced to a near-defunct body”. The parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, environment and forests for the first time took note of the problems ailing cpcb in a report tabled in Parliament on October 21.
Issues like unqualified members and lack of enforcement power have long plagued the central and state pollution control boards (spcbs), a fact acknowledged by the board heads. The committee also noticed that the scarcity of technical staff was affecting the functioning of the boards.
“The key posts in cpcb and spcbs are being manned by officers of the Indian Administrative Service or bureaucrats who neither possess the necessary capabilities and expertise in properly managing and planning pollution control activities nor have enough time to pay attention to these activities,”
the report said. Continue reading »
Filed under India, News, Pollution | Tags: Air Quality Monitoring, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Environment, India, Ministry Of Environment And Forests (MOEF), Parliament, Pollution Control, Water Quality | Comment (0)