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...

The Jagatsinghpur district administration has refuted the claims of National Forest Rights Act (NFRA) committee on presence of Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs) at the Posco project site and also on seeking the consent of gram sabha for diversion of forest land for the project. Contrary to the observations of the committee, the district collector said, there is no proof of any villager cultivating the forest land for the last three...

South Korean steelmaker Posco’s wait just got longer with the Union environment ministry directing Orissa government to stop all work at the project site, including land acquisition. The decision was taken after the N C Saxena-Devendra Pandey committee, appointed by the Centre, reported violations of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) at the Posco site. For its part, the state government has said that it will take “corrective and accurate steps”...

KEY TRENDS • As per the information collected by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) upto 31 October, 2017, 41,89,827 claims (40,50,131 individual and 1,39,696 community claims) have been filed and 18,24,271 titles (17,59,955 individual and 64,316 community claims) have been distributed. A total of 36,51,414 (87.15 percent) claims have been disposed off @@ • In the last 10 years, only 3 percent of the minimum potential of CFR rights could be...