-The Indian Express As new Environment Minister Veerappa Moily took charge at Paryavaran Bhavan, nearly 350 files were found to have been held back by predecessor Jayanthi Natarajan and her office. Documents accessed by The Indian Express show that as many as 180 of these files, returned from her residence on December 22, 23 and 24, were unsigned. But 119 were signed files which were still held back by the minister for...

-The Times of India DEHRADUN: Apparently taking a cue from the Aam Admi Party (AAP) government's recently launched helpline in Delhi for complaints against corrupt officials; the Uttarakhand government has come up with a similar helpline for dealing with illegal mining in the hill state. With this, Uttarakhand has become the only state in the country to have a dedicated helpline for complaints against illegal mining. The Uttarakhand Special Mining Vigilance Force...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today overruled the Centre and directed it to set up a national regulator to deal with the mandatory environmental impact assessment processes for forest-related projects that can range from mining to industrial ventures. The implications of such a watchdog for industry were not immediately clear in the absence of specific modalities but a clearance logjam blamed on the environment ministry was seen as one of...

-Down to Earth Mining ministry opposes cap on iron ore production; environment ministry disregards recommendation to cancel licence of firms encroaching forestland The Central government has rejected a key recommendation of justice M B Shah Commission, that of putting a cap on iron ore production in Odisha. The commission has been probing illegal mining across the country. In its first report released recently, it had pegged the loss to the Odisha government...

-The Hindu Proposals formulated in response to Shah Commission report The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has prepared its response to the Justice M.B. Shah Commission report on illegal mining in Odisha. But its proposals to address the violations flagged by the Commission will now be put on the back burner as the Cabinet has decided to refer the matter to a Committee of Secretaries. In most of its proposals, accessed by...