The Environment and Forests Ministry was in news throughout 2010 -- be it for Vedanta Resources, Posco and Lavasa -- or for Jairam Ramesh's aggressive green activism. While the ministry rejected the green signal to Vedanta for its $1.7 billion project to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa noting that the company violated the environment and forests rules, it put the $12 billion project by South Korean steelmaker Posco...

About 5,000 tribal villagers agitated against the Maithan Power Limited here today. According to the tribals, Tata Power purchased 1,200 acres land from 1,600 families for the project, a joint venture between Tata Power and Damodar Valley Corporation. They maintained they were promised jobs for every family in lieu of the land they gave up, but no jobs have been provided so far. "Till now, 90 percent of the work has been completed,...

The people adversely affected by the Tarapur Atomic Power Station today said they would revive their agitation against the project and meet villagers protesting a nuclear plant at Jaitapur to create awareness about the dark side of the project. The announcement came days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s scheduled visit to Tarapur to inaugurate a nuclear reprocessing facility. “The government has offered a higher compensation package to the local residents affected by...

Every time Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh says no to a project, his critics give him a new label: Green fundamentalist, anti-business, anti-growth, obstructionist, Luddite and Dr. No. The job has rarely attracted so much attention, but Ramesh has turned a sleepy and apathetic ministry into a controversial one in recent months. His pronouncements have stopped projects worth billions of dollars, creating powerful enemies in industry and business. His political colleagues have...

Farm labourers and sharecroppers stopped work at the site of a Rs 5,000-crore fertiliser plant in Burdwan’s Panagarh claiming they had not been paid their share of the land compensation and demanding construction jobs. The political links of the protesters at the 500-acre plot acquired by the government and handed over to the Mumbai-based Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd last year were not immediately clear. But Bengal industries minister Nirupam Sen,...