Thursday, June 16, 2011

Mamata delivered what she promised, the Singur Land Bill

The West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday passed by voice vote the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill to enable the Mamata Banerjee led government to acquire the entire 997.11 acres of land earlier handed over to the Tatas for their Nano car project. Now the Bill would be sent to the President for her assent.

As indicated earlier, the Left Front expressed their support to the Bill's spirit of returning lands to the dispossessed farmers but staged a walk- out from the Assembly citing several 'procedural anomalies'. As if to beat the Trinamul Congress with its own stick, Suryakanta Mishra, Leader of the Opposition, demanded that lands would have to be returned to not only those farmers having 400 acres of land and who had refused to accept compensation but to those agriculturists too whose lands fall within the boundaries of Tata's main factory area. In a word, he demanded return of the entire 997.11 acres of land to their previous owners.

The Left Front had two reasons for staging the walk- out and the new demand of the return of land. The walk- out, earlier not included in their plan of actions, had to be effected to prevent a division within the Left Front inside the Assembly. The RSP and the Forward Bloc, now almost on the verge of an open hostility with the CPM, might have voted for the Bill brushing aside all '' procedural objections'' from the CPM. Secondly, in order to counter the CPM propaganda of her being anti- industry, Mamata is now eager to set up alternative industrial units on 600 acres of land which will remain in the hands of the state government after distributing 400 acres to farmers who had refused to part with their lands.

Strangely enough, the Left Front today opposed the Bill's provision of giving compensation to Tatas and other ancillary units and instead maintained that it's the state government which should receive compensations.

The acquisition of Singur land by the state government is going to have tremendous impact on the political economy of West Bengal. Although Mamata Banerjee has decided not to disturb some other industrial ventures, started during the previous regime, industrialists are having a changed outlook.

Already there are hints that Prasun Mukherjee, a nonresident entrepreneur, might proceed with a changed plan of action at Nayachar, an island near the Bay of Bengal, and is expected to set up eco-friendly industries there.

Bundelkhand University announced UP CPMT result 2011

The results for Combined Pre Medical Test (CPMT) which was taken by around 6500 candidates are now out and can be checked on the checked on the official website of Bundelkhand University on http://www.bujhansi.org. As per the reports, around 30,000 candidates have managed to pass the exam, which means that there would be a stiff competition to get a seat in the state medical colleges as the ration of candidates & seats stand at 1:18.

Bundelkhand University, Vice Chancellor S V S Rana, after handed over the results to medical education department informed the media about the candidates who are the part of the top ten list of this year. Harshit Agarwal is on the top with 169 marks out of 200 followed by Shailesh Singh, Anshul Tewari and Utkarsh Agarwal with 165, 164 and 163 marks respectively.

The counseling for admission into various colleges is scheduled to take place between July 13 and 17 and the list of Dental & Medical Colleges in UP can be found on the official website of Department of Medical Education, Uttar Pradesh. The website to check the results is extremely slow at the moment due to the heavy traffic load on the server.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Maharashtra SSC Result 2011 : Students left confused

The declaration of results of Secondary School Certificate examination has been enveloped in confusion. The confusion was further confounded earlier this week with students receiving messages on their mobiles stating that results will be declared on June 15.

The message, in fact, asks the students to visit the official website to check their results on June 15. However, a detailed search of the website did not indicate that results would be declared on June 15. The state government had set a June 15 deadline for declaration of SSC results.

Earlier, the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary education department had declared the Higher Secondary Certificate results a day earlier, however there is no sign on Secondary School Certificate results so far.

The mobile messages, on the other hand, spread like wild fire with parents and students scouring the official website to seek confirmation. Commenting on the spread of such messages, R. R. Bhise, Divisional Secretary, Mumbai Board said, " The state education department decides the date of declaration of result. After the authorities decide the date we receive an official letter stating the date.

Only after that, a formal announcement is made. However, we are yet to receive any such information from the state government and hence cannot confirm whether the results will be declared on June 15 or not." He further stated, "The messages which students are receiving are nothing but a prank. Students are on tenterhooks and some miscreants are creating panic by sending such SMS. Students will be given prior intimation of the date of declaration of results. Till then, students should not succumb to such fake messages."

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Mamata all set to move the Singur land acquisition bill today

Learning from her mistake, Mamata Banerjee has grown wiser. Jettisoning the idea of an Ordinance, she is all set to move a Bill in the West Bengal Assembly today for taking over the entire 997.11 acres of land in Singur which was handed over to Tata Motors for the Nano car factory.

Interestingly, the CPM, taking a U- turn, has decided to support the land acquisition Bill, leaving Buddhadev in the lurch. It will only raise some objections as far as the modalities are concerned.

In moving the Bill, Mamata has deviated a little from the stand she had maintained ever since the West Bengal government acquired land for the Tatas. Previously her stand was that around 400 acres of land should be returned to those farmers who had refused to take compensation. But now she has decided to acquire the entire land under the Tata's possession.

This certainly amounts to a hardening of attitude. Political circles in Kolkata find it a little difficult to explain.

But sources in the Trinamul Congress point out that an earlier letter from the Tatas to the Buddhadev Bhattacharjee government expressing their unwillingness to go ahead with the project any more has provided Mamata with a potent weapon. However, according to one group of Trinamul leadership, the real reason for taking over the entire project area lies in the nature of ownership of land before the acquisition.

A little more than six hundred acres of land, on which the main car factory of the Tatas was scheduled to come up, belonged to mostly absentee landlords who did accept compensation from the state government. After Tatas carried out the construction, those six hundred acres have become unfit for any cultivation. Trinamul leaders point out that a cursory offer might be made to the Tatas now for re- launching their Nano project and in the event of their refusal Mamata is eyeing either a railway factory or ventures by any other industrial house there.

There is a strong possibility that the Bill will declare the entire land as "khas" or vested and the Tatas will be asked to remove their possessions.

The Tatas, or the other ancillary industrial groups, might ask for compensation, the quantum of which will be decided by an arbitrator who might be the District Judge of the Hooghly district under whose jurisdiction Singur falls.

Till the time computation of the compensation is complete the Tatas as well as the ancillary unit owners will get an interim relief of 6 per cent of their investment. If the Tatas do not vacate the land within the stipulated time then the District Magistrate of Hooghly will be at liberty to take possession of the land by force.