NIIRA RADIA, the lobbyist at the heart of India’s audacious multi-billion telecom swindle, inaugurated a Krishna temple she funded in south Delhi on her birthday — that, interestingly, coincides with Indira Gandhi’s. Those present on the occasion said Radia prayed for long, presumably seeking divine intervention to wriggle out of the country’s biggest scandal. Before the temple visit, notices from the country’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax (IT) Department and the...

A day after the Union Environment Ministry issued a show cause notice to lavasa Corporation Limited for alleged illegal constructions, Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar refused to take sides. As chairman of the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation, Mr. Pawar had given 141.15 hectares from the Valley land to lavasa on a 30-year lease, allegedly without government permission. Asked whether he would re-think this decision, Mr. Pawar said: “lavasa will have...

The Union Environment Ministry on Friday issued a show cause notice to the controversial lavasa Corporation Limited (LCL), raising serious questions over a number of its constructions that it deems as ‘violations.' lavasa, India's first hill city, is the ambitious project undertaken by Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) about 45 km from Pune. To be built over 25,000 acres, the luxurious city now faces a serious problem with the Ministry notice. The company...

The Mumbai Collector had, in a letter to the Defence Estates Officer, Mumbai Circle, dated July 12, 2004, denied that the government of Maharashtra allotted any land to the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society in Colaba. Records obtained using the Right to Information (RTI) Act by the National Alliance of Peoples' Movements (NAPM), which were released on Monday by Ms. Medha Patkar, Simpreet Singh and other activists, show that the Collector accorded...

Noted social activist Anna Hazare has decided to launch a 'jail bharo' agitation against the 'illegal decision of the state government to condone irregularities' in the lavasa lake city project coming up near Pune. "The state government's decision to regularise irregularities in lavasa project is akin to daylight robbery of tribals whose lands have been illegally acquired for the project," Hazare said. "As per law, land of tribals cannot be transferred. But...