In yet another blow to the Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta Alumina Ltd , the environment ministry has decided to halt the company’s plans of expanding its Rs 4,600-crore Lanjigarh refinery in Orissa. The existing one million tonne Lanjigarh refinery will, however, continue to be in operation. The ministry has found the Lanjigarh refinery’s expansion to be “unauthorised” and in serious violation of environmental laws. It has decided to revoke the permission given...

The Orissa government will reply to the queries made by the Centre on the Meena Gupta panel report on Posco project in the next three days, Chief Secretary B K Patnaik said on Wednesday. “We will reply to the Centre on the panel’s reports within three days,” Patnaik told reporters here. The state government did not comment on the reports of the committee for the past two days. Smarting under the Union...

Steel giant Posco’s proposal for the largest foreign direct investment in India has failed to pass environment muster with a central panel picking flaws in the process to settle forest rights and approve the shortlisted site in Orissa. Three members of the four-person committee have recommended that the Union forest and environment ministry scrap its approvals while the remaining nominee has suggested that the exercise be carried out afresh. The panel’s recommendations...

The Supreme Court has dismissed a public interest litigation petition seeking a direction to make ‘right to property' a fundamental right under the Constitution. Though the ‘right to property' was deleted by the 44 {+t} {+h} Constitution Amendment in 1978, it was challenged only in 2007 in the context of acquisition of large extents of land for Special Economic Zones, and the court issued notice to the Centre. It was contended in...

Indigenous people are entitled to their own institutions and self-governing structures to enable them to manage their own affairs and ensure that the development process is aligned with their own cultural patterns, values and customs, a United Nations independent expert says in a report. “In the light of the extreme disadvantages that indigenous peoples have typically faced across a range of social and economic indicators, there are particular concerns… that must...