It also wants exemplary cost recovered from them AMC's licence should also be cancelled Reddy brothers, others get two weeks to file response The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee has declared “illegal” the Mining done by the Reddy brothers through three leases in Obulapuram mines in the Bellary reserved forest area, and recommended that the licences be cancelled and exemplary cost recovered from them. In November last, the Forest Bench asked the Committee to...

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...

After visits to 17 states, a committee set up in April last year to check out the implementation of India’s Forest Rights Act, meant to fix “historical injustice,” wasn’t very happy. The law, which came into full effect two years ago, was intended to assert the rights of forest dwellers more firmly. “The overall finding of the committee is that, with notable exceptions, the implementation of the FRA has been poor,...

It will be tabled in the budget session of Parliament: Kharge Manmohan's nod obtained for amendment 17 amendments to impose higher penalties In a move that will benefit 55 lakh workers in the Mining sector in the country, the Union Labour and Employment Ministry is amending the National Mines Act 1952. The Amendment Bill would be tabled during the budget session of Parliament. Announcing this at a press conference at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress...

Hidden behind all the administrative scandals that rocked India in 2010, illegal Mining is an unnoticed beast that has been eating into the country's soul.   While corruption in spectrum allocation and the conduct of the Commonwealth Games are primarily about monetary loot, illegal Mining is about invaluable non-renewable natural resources.   In at least five major states, there were more than 20,000 complaints of illegal Mining filed, but the perpetrators carried on with...