-The Hindu Forest Bench says statutory clearance is a must   The Forest Bench of the Supreme Court on Friday made it clear that no iron ore mining operations in Karnataka shall be permitted to resume unless there was statutory clearance for mining and till reclamation and Rehabilitation was implemented in full. The Bench, comprising Justice Aftab Alam, Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar, took the decision after the Central Empowered Committee in...

-The Times of India GUWAHATI: The ethnic violence between Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims, which sparked off in Kokrajhar on July 20 and soon affected neighbouring Chirang and Dhubri districts, has spread to new areas with fresh incidents of violence being reported from Baksa, Nalbari and Kamrup (rural) in the past 12 hours. There was no report of any loss of life. On Wednesday midnight, after miscreants set a Tata Nano car on...

-The Hindu Let us begin by listening to Mira’s story. When I learnt that I have been granted admission in the college of my choice, fear of being part of the “rest of the world” gripped me. Though confident about my academic abilities, I was terrified at the thought of how the “others” would react to me: a cerebral palsy wheelchair user with a speech difficult to comprehend and a drooling mouth....

-Pratirodh Bureau Activists led by Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar have alleged that the much awaited Land Acquisition Bill was actually a "diluted version" of the Standing Committee's recommended bill.   The activists under belonging to various groups, including National Alliance of People’s Movements, National Forum of Forest people and Forest Workers, Kisan Sangharsh Samiti and Sangharsh claimed that the "positive" position taken by the Standing Committee had been diluted by the...

-Tehelka Activists say that the agricultural land should not be acquired for non-agricultural purposes A group of activists on Tuesday 7 August raised concerns about the land acquisition bill in its new form. The activists have demanded a white paper stating the extent of land acquired by the government. The new bill, called the Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement and Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill, is at odds with the recommendations...