Pushed to a corner by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh’s peremptory freeze on Bt brinjal, the UPA government took the first step of finding a way out. And it needed the authority of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to do that. In a clear enunciation of the government’s policy on GM crops — a policy that got clouded by Ramesh’s rhetoric — the Prime Minister underlined the importance of biotechnology in productivity...
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Manmohan convenes meeting on Bt brinjal today by Gargi Parsai
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has convened a meeting of the Ministers concerned with genetically modified (GM) crops on Wednesday. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Minister of State for Environment and Forests (Independent Charge) Jairam Ramesh and Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan are expected to attend. The meeting has been called in response to a letter written by Mr. Pawar earlier this month to Dr. Singh, in which...
More »NREGA schemes check villagers’ exodus to cities by Ruhi Tewari
In Danta village, 15km from Bhilwara city, 30-odd women start filing in at 8.30 am daily to resume work on building a concrete water reservoir. The women are among the 2,000 people in the village who have got work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) since the scheme, promising 100 days of work a year to one adult member of every rural family, was launched two years ago...
More »Notice issued to company building Maheshwar Dam
80 % construction complete, but only 3 % rehabilitation has been done The Environment Ministry has issued a show cause notice to the company building the Maheshwar Dam in the Narmada Valley after hundreds of affected people marched to the Ministry demanding rehabilitation. According to the notice, if the company cannot explain why 80 per cent of construction is over even while rehabilitation efforts lag behind, the project could be...
More »None to protect tribal rights in panel on forest resources
Ministries of environment and forests and tribal affairs have jointly set up a 10-member committee to study and assess the impact of Forest Rights Act on sustainable management of forest resources. Given the lead role played by the environment ministry in this committee, concerns have been flagged off by civil society organisations about the real intent and legality of the committee. The committee headed by former director-general of Forest Survey...
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