-The Hindu Dehra Dun: Navdanya, the People's Science Institute and the Friends of Doon - all local environment protection groups - have urged Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna to immediately cancel the memorandum of understanding signed with Coca-Cola that plans to set up a unit in Vikas Nagar area near here. "We will never allow Coca-Cola to set up its plant in the ecologically sensitive Doon Valley as the plant, besides stealing...

-The Hindu Left parties to press for referring land acquisition bill to panel VISAKHAPATNAM: Continuing her tirade against attempts by the UPA Government to adopt the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011, in Parliament without addressing the concerns expressed by many, CPI (M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat on Sunday accused Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh of dancing to the tune of the corporate lobby. At a seminar on ‘Tribal...

-Frontline PESA, which is seen as an enabling law for tribal self-governance, is violated brazenly by both the Union government and State governments in the name of development. SINCE October 2012, the Ministry of Rural Development of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has apparently been engaged in an exercise to evolve a "National Land Reforms Policy". Over these months, the Ministry wrote to various State governments, highlighting the importance of...

-The Hindu She claims the Bill has been diluted at the behest of Mining lobby VISAKHAPATNAM: CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat on Saturday described as ‘historic' the Supreme Court order making the gram sabha consent a pre-requisite for going ahead with the controversial Vedanta project in Odisha. She urged the UPA government to take a fresh look at the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011. Instead of rushing the Bill through...

-The Indian Express Bangalore: When affidavits were filed by the contestants for the 2008 assembly polls declaring their wealth, it was a close race between the two dominant money-spinning sectors in Karnataka - real estate and iron ore Mining. Affidavits filed by 5,376 candidates in the fray for the May 5 assembly polls show that the real estate sector that flourishes in and around Bangalore and, to a lesser extent, around cities...