The Centre has cleared proposals for rural roads worth Rs 4,440 crore which includes areas in Orissa reeling under Left-wing influence. Union rural development minister C P Joshi told reporters on Wednesday that the empowered committee for Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) approved the proposals, taking the total approved projects under Bharat Nirman and PMGSY to Rs 40,000 crore. He said projects worth Rs 236 were cleared for Orissa...

An amount of Rs 5.09 cror have been expended by the Rural Development Department on the execution of 433 rural works under MGNREGA upto August 2010, besides 62000 job cards were also issued during the same period. 1336, development works were also targeted to complete them during the current fiscal. This was stated in a meeting of officers and engineers of Rural Development Department to review the progress achieved under the...

Will earmark regions out of bounds for mining To identify areas of dense forest cover where mining will not be allowed Bid to avert delay of projects and their getting stalled on environmental grounds Seeking to adopt a holistic approach to the issue of mining and avoid a repeat of the Niyamgiri incident, the Mines Ministry will soon draw up a new policy that would clearly earmark regions that would be out of...

The government is planning to put in place a more transparent mining policy by designating parts of mineral-rich regions as out of bounds for industry because of environmental concerns, a move that can avoid episodes such as the recent ban on mining at Niyamgiri in Orissa but could hurt expansion plans of companies located in such areas. The plan is to divide the country’s mineral-rich regions into so-called ‘go’ and...

Farmers would be given adequate compensation for their lands acquired for setting up a nuclear power plant in Fatehabad district of Haryana, parliament member Ashok Tanwar Monday assured a group of protesting farmers. The farmers were holding a sit-in outside the mini secretariat at Fatehabad town, over 300 km from here, to protest acquisition of their lands in Gorakhpur-Kumharia village. Tanwar, MP from Sirsa, told the farmers that all their fears on...