Raising doubts on the impartiality of the Saxena-Pandey committee appointed by the Centre, the Orissa government has questioned the authenticity of their findings about violations in the Posco project area. Countering the charge of violation of the Forest Rights Act, the state government has asked the environment ministry to reconsider its “stop work” order. In a letter to the Union environment ministry, the state government has alleged that “the way...

Bhartiya Janta Party will set up a memorial to honour farmers who lost their lives in the police firing at Aligarh, declared the BJP state president, Surya Pratap Shahi. Addressing a farmers' meeting in Aligarh on Tuesday, Shahi said that farmers were being exploited by the BSP and suffering as its consequence only because they lacked to put up a collective front. Now, the BJP, he said, would strive to...

When former Karnataka Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde recently said that vested interests were controlling the mining industry, he was not exaggerating, considering that India registered over 182,000 cases of illegal mining across 17 states in the last five years alone. The Union government data show that Andhra Pradesh — the single largest contributor to the country’s mineral production of roughly Rs 1,28,000 crore — alone registered a 110 per cent increase...

Parliament on Monday came to a standstill over the firing on protesting Aligarh farmers when anti-BSP outfits joined hands to corner the Mayawati regime over Land Acquisition for Yamuna Expressway. The Sunday firing saw Congress, SP, BJP and RLD block proceedings in the two Houses of Parliament as they demanded a discussion on the issue. BSP opposed the demand saying it was a state subject. While the provocation for blockade...

Faced with protests by farmers demanding higher compensation for land acquired for a township along the Taj Expressway, the Mayawati government on Tuesday decided to hike the price offered to them by 20 per cent at Rs 570 per square metre. A team of top state officials led by state cabinet secretary Sashankh Sekhar Singh and some senior ministers of the Mayawati government held parleys with farmer leaderRam Babu Kateria...