The green bench of the Himachal Pradesh high court slapped a fine of Rs 100 crore on Jaiprakash Associates on Friday for setting up a cement plant fraudulently. The court quashed the environmental clearance granted to the company's thermal plant and directed that it be dismantled within three months. It also called for a special investigation team to be set up to see if state officials were involved. Disposing of...

-Zee News Information provided by a person while applying for passport can be disclosed under the Right to Information Act, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has held. "Given our dismal record of mis-governance and rampant corruption which collude to deny citizens their essential rights and dignity, it is in the fitness of things that the Citizen's Right to Information is given greater primacy with regard to privacy," Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi...

-The Hindu Environment Ministry rejected forest clearance to Kalu dam in Thane district While irregularities were surfacing in irrigation projects around Mumbai in early April, the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) rejected forest clearance to the Kalu dam in Murbad taluka of Thane district, which would have submerged around 1,000 hectares of forest land. Work started last October without permission from the MOEF, and Indavi Tulpule...

In a decision that could kick up a controversy, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has said that information provided by a person while applying for a passport could be disclosed under the Right to Information Act. "Given our dismal record of mis-governance and rampant corruption which collude to deny citizens their essential rights and dignity, it is in the fitness of things that the citizen's right to information is given...

Himachal Pradesh-based environmental organisations are elated over the recent High Court judgment against cement majors Jaiprakash Associates Limited for flouting environmental norms and illegally acquiring land for setting up their mega business ventures. Non-governmental organisation Him Parivesh that had filed the petition in the High Court had said: “The years of struggle of the communities and their stand against the Jaypee power project and cement plant has been vindicated by the...