Supreme Court wants hazardous waste rules aligned with Basel Convention THE Supreme Court has directed the Centre to ban the import of hazardous waste. While hearing a 17-year-old case, the court also asked the government to amend the existing laws pertaining to toxic waste so that they comply with the Basel Convention, an international treaty that prohibits transboundary movement of toxic waste. India ratified the Convention in 1992. The court gave the...

-The Hindu Fifty-two more local body representatives have resigned protesting ‘police atrocities and lack of development of the region,’ in the Korchi tehsil of Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. The total number of resignations now stands at 218 in Korchi. “The list includes 27 sarpanchs, 27 deputy sarpanchs, 31 police patils and 133 gram panchayat members,” Nandkishor Vairagade, secretary of the Sarpanch Union of Korchi told The Hindu . “On June 29 Baiju Hidami,...

-The Telegraph RANCHI: Support for Nagri villagers on Sunday came from the largest opposition party of the state, the Congress. Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee (JPCC) chief Pradeep Kumar Balmuchu visited Nagri village to take a stock of the situation. "The situation is grim. The government's stand on the situation is pathetic. Any development at the cost of the livelihood of tribals is unjustified," Balmuchu said while assuring his support to the villagers....

-The Telegraph Ranchi: Faced with an imminent Jharkhand High Court hearing on the progress made at Nagri where three premier educational institutes are coming up, a cornered state government has planned a desperate defence to counter allegations of mishandling the issue and escalating the battle of ownership of 227 acres. According to sources, the government will tell the court of a plan to set up police barracks at the construction sites of...

Model community forestry initiatives in Orissa are defying Forest Department efforts to control and exploit the region’s forests. ‘Heaven is a forest of miles and miles of Mohua trees / And hell is a forest of miles and miles of Mohua trees with a forest guard in it!’ Thus goes a song of the Muria Adivasis in the forests of Bastar in central India. Encapsulated in this simple expression, however, is...