In a major relief to the Ahmedabad-based Adani Group, the Gujarat High Court has disposed of a bunch of Public Interest Litigation petitions challenging the State government's allotment of about 1,000 acres of land to the Adanis for setting up the Mundra Special Economic Zone in Kutch district. ‘No merit' A Division Bench, comprised by Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhyaya and Justice Akil Kureshi, did not find any merit in the PILs which...

A day after the Orissa government halted land acquisition for the controversial Posco project, its detractors observed Wednesday as a 'Black Day' to protest the anniversary of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the state government and the steel giant six years ago. On Tuesday, the Jagatsinghpur district administration suspended land acquisition for the 12-million tonne steel plant project after protests escalated in Gobindpur village with leaders of the Congress, CPI,...

-PTI   A number of issues pertaining to rural development programmes such as Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, National Rural Livelihoods Mission and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act are likely to be discussed in a two-day conference beginning here tomorrow. Besides monitoring and evaluation of the development programmes, issues relating to District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) administration scheme will be discussed in the conference to be inaugurated and chaired by Minister of Rural...

Orissa government is finding it difficult to acquired land for Posco's Rs 52,000 crore steel project as anti-displacement brigade gained strength from political parties and social activists with Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patker on Monday visiting Dhinkia, the entry point to the proposed plant site on Monday and lending her support to protester. Last week social activists Swami Agnibesh visited Dhinkia and warned the government of any violence...

Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district administration today indefinitely put on hold the land acquisition process for the 12-million-tonne Posco steel plant. “The dismantling of betel vineyards for land acquisition in Dhinkia gram panchayat has been suspended till further instructions. However, officials have gone ahead with other work such as clearing the fruit-bearing trees from the project villages in two other gram panchayats,” said Paradip additional district magistrate Saroj Kanta Choudhury. On the other hand,...