-The Hindu Proposed NIB would be illegal, she says Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan has expressed “very serious concern” at the setting up of a National Investment Board to fast-track clearances of major infrastructure projects, saying the “concept is unacceptable,” documents exclusively obtained by The Hindu reveal. In a five-page letter sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 9, Ms. Natarajan said the proposal would upturn established procedures...

-Frontline Reinstatement of the fundamental right to property in the Constitution will on its own do little to protect the interests of poor peasants and traditional communities.  The Indian Constitution adopted in 1950 guaranteed a set of fundamental rights that cannot be abridged by Central or State laws. One of these fundamental rights was the right to property enshrined in Articles 19(1)(f) and 31. Article 19(1)(f) guaranteed to all citizens the right...

-Frontline Members of denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, treated as criminal tribes by the colonial rulers, have no place to call their own and no land, no rights, and no support from the government.  Emaciated, eyes sunken deep into sockets, skin hanging loose, almost gasping for breath, Indro Devi and Sarvnath, a couple in their eighties, lie on polythene sheets in an 8×10 square-foot tent made of rags, by a stinking nullah...

-The Times of India PANAJI: Following the adverse report by the Shah commission on illegal mining in Goa, the Union environment and forests minister Jayanthi Natarajan on Wednesday announced the suspension of environment clearances given to all 93 functional mining leases in the state. The orders came a day after TOI's story on how the central government had given illegal clearances to Goa's iron ore mines even under PM Manmohan Singh's watch...

-The Hindu ‘Important to have dedicated website, to be networked across country’ Concerned over a large number of children going missing in the country, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has sought a report from the States on creation of websites for reporting cases. Pursuing the October 12, 2011 Supreme Court order, the Commission has said the issue of missing children and trafficking in children within and across States requires...