The Supreme Court on Friday accepted the report of the Central Empowered Committee and directed the implementation of reclamation and Rehabilitation plans for all three categories of mines in the districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur in Karnataka. Implementing plans A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice Aftab Alam and Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan said that the R and R plans should start immediately. The Bench said: “It is made clear...

 The Supreme Court on Friday said that it will not relax its order banning mining operations in Karnataka unless recommended by its green panel - Central Empowered Committee. The court also asked iron ore mining companies to complete the clean-up and land reclamation if they want the ban to be lifted.  However, the court accepted the recommendations of the panel pitching for continuation of limited mining operations by the state-owned National...

-The Economic Times   The special court's verdict in the communal killings in Ode and the Special Investigation Team's (SIT) closure of investigation in the Gulberg Society massacre - after finding no evidence to prosecute CM Narendra Modi and top political leaders, bureaucrats and police officers - highlight the laboriousness of delivering some measure of justice to the victims of the carnage in Gujarat in 2002.  The SIT's report is by no means...

Deadline to be fixed for conversion of insanitary latrines Employing people for manual scavenging and cleaning of septic tanks and sewers will attract a hefty penalty once the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012 is passed. The Bill that seeks to prohibit employment as sanitary workers is to be tabled in Parliament in the monsoon session. The proposed law suggests that every insanitary latrine will have to...

-ANI The threat of Japanese encephalitis loomed large over Uttar Pradesh Gorakhpur District, claiming at least 45 lives, even though the administration has upgraded healthcare centres to ensure Rehabilitation and cure for the affected. Locals have attributed the spread of the epidemic to lack of vaccination this year. They contended that in the absence of proper preventive vaccination, a new kind of encephalitis virus is doing the rounds. "The patients who are coming...