N C Saxena, who led the committee which recommended against permitting mining of the Niyamgiri hills in Orissa, says the same approach should be adopted for Andhra Pradesh’s mammoth Polavaram hydro project, too. If there is violation of the forest rights Act (FRA) there, too, it should not be allowed, as that is the law of the land, Saxena told Business Standard. The Polavaram dam being constructed on the Godavari river by...

A Right to Information (RTI) activist who was in the forefront in exposing corruption in PDS, foodgrain and fuel distribution in the Marathwada region has been found dead in Nanded. The circumstances behind how 43-year-old Ramdas Ghadegavkar, a local Shiv Sena leader, died is shrouded in mystery. The death of Ramdas, who used the RTI Act, adds another name in the victim list of whistleblowers in the country. The Shivajinagar police...

Vedanta has initiated efforts to get mining rights in other areas of the state to run its 1-million-tonne plant at Lanjigarh but the Congress has vowed to block the handover of at least one of the alternative sites. The company’s rethink crystallised after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi hinted on August 26 that the Niyamgiri hills would not be given for mining to Vedanta Alumina. During the past two days, the chief...

It's a Rs 50,000 crore annual business but those at the bottom of the supply chain -- mostly tribals -- make a mere Rs 4,000 crore out of it. The extraction of non-timber forest produce -- tuburs, leaves, seeds, plants and roots, besides other products from forest -- could soon become a bigger money-spinner for tribals. The government has set up a committee, which in three months will recommend how...

Ahead of the visit of the Central team to the Posco site scheduled for August 27-28, the Jagatsinghpur district officials today held interactions with the villagers and village forest rights Act (FRA) committees to explain about the purpose of the visit of the team. Sources said, the district administration has formed seven village level FRA committees at Dhinkia, Gobindpur, Nuagaon, Gadkujang, Polang, Noliasahi and Baynalkanda. The officials are believed to have...