-The Hindu   The Orissa High Court on Friday refused to pass any interim stay with regard to acquisition of forest land by the State government for Posco project but ordered that the status quo with regard to acquisition of private land for the project shall be maintained. The Division Bench of Chief Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice B N Mohapatra, which had been hearing at least two PILs with regard to...

NEW DELHI: Sealing the fate of Vedanta's bauxite mining project in Niyamgiri hills of Orissa, Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh cancelled the environmental clearance as well on Monday. He had rejected the forest clearance in an order in August 2010. Ramesh's decision came after TOI had reported that his ministry's project review arm, the Environment Appraisal Committee, had again recommended the project despite the minister's order stating that the environmental clearance...

-The Times of India   Maoist-affected districts across the country might have seen years of neglect by successive governments, but a new Central scheme - Integrated Action Plan (IAP) - under the UPA-II is fast filling up the 'critical gap' in those 'deficit zones' through taking up a number of development projects. As many as 67,072 basic infrastructure projects across 60 districts in nine states have been taken up at Rs 2,740...

Forest Bench issues guidelines for future clearances The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the French cement company Lafarge to mine limestone in the forests of the East Khasi hills in Meghalaya. The Forest Bench, comprising Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justices Aftab Alam and K.S. Radhakrishnan, accepted the contentions of the Lafarge to mine in the forests of Meghalaya and that it had obtained necessary clearances. Writing the judgment, the CJI said: “In...

The Orissa government suspends the land acquisition for the Posco project in the face of stiff opposition from the people. SIX years ago, when the South Korean steel giant Posco arrived in Orissa with the biggest ever foreign direct investment that had come the country's way, it was expected to help rid the economically backward State of its ‘poor' tag and bring prosperity. Posco had won the $12 billion deal at...