-IPS News Officials at the World Bank are forcefully rejecting a new internal evaluation that is highly critical of the institution’s decade-long forest policy, expressing their “strong disagreement” with some assertions in the report. The assessment, written by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), the World Bank Group’s auditor, warns that expectations for poverty reduction as envisioned in the bank’s 2002 Forest Strategy “have not yet been met”. The report is particularly critical...
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Analysis of functioning of MoEF's Expert Appraisal Committee on River Valley Projects
-South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People The Expert Approval Committee has zero rejection in six years The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests’ (MoEF) Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) on River Valley and Hydroelectric Projects (RVP) has considered a total of 262 hydropower and irrigation projects in close to six years since April 2007 when the new committee was set up to its latest, 63rd meeting in December 2012. An...
More »New markers to label forest areas ‘inviolate’
-The Indian Express A committee set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests has suggested new parameters to declare pristine forested areas as ‘inviolate’ and thus out of bounds for mining or other harmful non-forest activities. The panel, headed by former environment secretary T Chatterjee, has recommended that national parks and wildlife sanctuaries; areas within a kilometre of protected areas; compact patches of very dense Forests; last remnants of forest types...
More »Supreme Court bars entry of tourists in Jarawa tribe habitat -Dhananjay Mahapatra
-The Times of India The Supreme Court on Monday wanted to know from Andaman & Nicobar Island administration whether it intended to keep in isolation the extremely endangered Jarawa tribe, which numbered just over 300, and banned all tourist movement in their habitat. "We need to know the policy of the government. Whether they want the Jarawas to be kept in isolation or to be assimilated in the mainstream," asked a bench...
More »‘Set up national panel to check misuse of government funds by NGOs’ -Sandeep Joshi
-The Hindu Highlighting the importance of proper audit of the non-government organisations (NGOs), particularly those getting grants from the government, a report based on information received under RTI reveals that the Union and State governments give yearly grants worth Rs.1,000 crore to various NGOs. “At a time when the grants to the NGOs given by the Centre have been increasing — from Rs. 561 crore in 2002-2003 to Rs. 835 crore in...
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