-The Times of India The Chhattisgarh government fudged records, concealed facts, changed policy and altered decisions while the Union environment ministry overlooked all such illegalities to open up 1,899 hectares for mining in Hasdeo Arand, one of the best patches of forests in central India. Initially, the Centre had decided to protect Hasdeo Arand by making it a no-go zone for miners. The Chhattisgarh government too had moved to get the dense...

-PTI BHUBANESHWAR: Giving full opportunity to mine lessees to express their views on shady activities in iron ore and manganese mining in Odisha, Justice M B Shah Commission today said illegal mining activities exist in the state. "Unless there is illegal mining, there is no inquiry," Chairman of the Commission Justice M B Shah said on the second day of hearing here. Noting that the commission was giving full opportunities to mine owners...

-Outlook Bhubaneswar: Giving full opportunity to mine lessees to express their views on shady activities in iron ore and manganese mining in Odisha, Justice M B Shah Commission today said illegal mining activities exist in the state. "Unless there is illegal mining, there is no inquiry," Chairman of the Commission Justice M B Shah said on the second day of hearing here. Noting that the commission was giving full opportunities to mine owners...

-The Times of India Justice J S Verma Committee did not intend to include sex workers who are in the profession out of their own free will. Sex workers have been protesting against the committee's recommendations, accepted by the government in the proposed Section 370 in the ordinance on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2012, which defined prostitution as exploitation. The National Network of Sex Workers had sought a clarification from the...

-IPS News Officials at the World Bank are forcefully rejecting a new internal evaluation that is highly critical of the institution’s decade-long forest policy, expressing their “strong disagreement” with some assertions in the report. The assessment, written by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), the World Bank Group’s auditor, warns that expectations for poverty reduction as envisioned in the bank’s 2002 Forest Strategy “have not yet been met”. The report is particularly critical...