The four-member review committee on Posco  will submit its report to the environment and forests ministry on Monday but it has already got mired in controversy with the chair of the panel, ex-environment secretary Meena Gupta, expected to give a dissent note while the other members provide a unanimous majority version. The fact that the chair of the committee was the senior-most bureaucrat in MoEF when environmental clearance was given to...

Global hunger is rising rapidly due to sharp spikes in food commodity prices. The combination of global food crisis and economic recession pushed the number of hungry people beyond the one billion mark, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation's Director-General Jacques Diouf told the 36th session of the Inter-governmental Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in Rome on Wednesday. The session has been timed with the World Food Day on Saturday. Agricultural scientist...

The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) today demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged Rs 10,000-crore financial scam in the field of Public Distribution System (PDS) in Assam during the Tenure of Congress-led State Government. Criticizing the State Government for its failure to strengthen the PDS system in the State, the party said that the essential commodities meant for the BPL and APL families of the State are being sold in the...

The one-man inquiry commission constituted under Justice Iqbal Singh, a former Judge of the Punjab and Haryana HC, to probe the Mirchpur incident of April 1this year in which two Dalits were burnt alive and 18 houses of the community were torched, has got an extension of six months. Sources said the notification pertaining to the extension of the commission’s Tenure would be issued shortly. The commission, constituted on June...

Outgoing state chief information commissioner (CIC) Suresh Joshi holds the privilege of being the first state CIC under the Right to Information Act. He has upped the ante with his retirement, five years down the line. At the time of his exit, Maharashtra holds the distinction of having disposed off the maximum number of appeals in the country — 54,000 as of June, as compared to the Centre’s 50,000, and with fewer...