-Livemint.com Parliamentary panel blames ministry for not utilizing budget in full, demands tightening of administrative steps New Delhi: A parliamentary committee has criticized the government for cutting funds for the environment ministry and asked it to revise the allocation since the ministry is tasked with arresting environment degradation. The committee also blamed the ministry for not utilizing its budget in full, and demanded that it tighten its administrative mechanisms. A report by the...

-IANS CHANDIGARH: They have been warned, threatened with prosecution and even offered inducements. But a number of farmers in Punjab and Haryana seem disinclined to stop their environment-unfriendly bi-annual exercise of burning crop residue, cited by environmentalists as one of the prinicipal causes of dust haze and air pollution in Delhi and northern India. With the wheat harvest in both the states nearly over, authorities are attempting in whatever they can to...

-Deccan Herald There is a fresh threat to the country's green cover from a new definition of Forests being considered by the Centre. Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has said that the new definition will cover notified Forests and those with good tree cover. But it may leave out a good part of what is now considered as Forests. In fact, there is no clear definition of Forests even now in...

-Hindustan Times Sheopur: Raju Adivasi is young, a postgraduate in Hindi literature and is, without doubt, the most qualified among the ancient Saharia tribespeople of Sheopur. They, as tribe, are entitled to walk in and walk out with any government job matching their qualification without interview. But he has been jobless for the past 10 months after the Centre stopped funds to a scheme that had gave him job in a government...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government has moved a proposal for complete ban on child labour up to 14 years with the caveat that employment will only be allowed in family enterprises after school hours even as child rights activists have opposed the move. The labour ministry has sought Cabinet approval for an amendment to the Child Labour Prohibition Act which will allow children below the age of 14 to...