-PTI   Alleging forcible land acquisition for Posco steel project near Paradip, five political parties today resolved to go for a civil disobedience agitation in front of the state secretariat on Monday.The leaders of five parties comprising CPI, CPI(M), Forward Bloc, RJD and Samajwadi Party in a joint meeting condemened the state government's alleged act of using force to acquire land from the residents of the three gram panchayats under Ersama...

-The Hindu   Investing an additional $40 billion annually in the Forestry sector can halve the deForestation rates by 2030, increase the rate of tree planting by about 140 per cent by 2050, and catalyse the creation of millions of new jobs, according to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Backed by the right kind of enabling policies, such an investment — equal to about two-thirds more than what...

Brushing aside protests from a section of landowners, a determined district administration today stepped up its land acquisition drive in Gadakujang and Nuagaon gram panchayats. Simultaneously, the authorities also worked out strategies for taking up the drive in the Dhinkia gram panchayat, the nerve-centre of anti-Posco movement. “The land acquisition process was peaceful barring a few cases where people expressed unwillingness but we managed to prevail over them,” said special land acquisition...

Tension prevailed in the area chosen for the proposed Posco steel project in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur on Friday after 17 persons opposing land acquisition for the venture were taken into custody. They include Basudev Behera, Panchayat Samiti member of Gadakujang gram panchayat and vice-president of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, the organisation leading the anti-Posco agitation since 2005, four women and five children. The villagers, who were picked up by the policemen from Noliasahi...

An arrest in a small corner of Chhattisgarh has become the subject of an 'urgent action' petition circulating worldwide. Amnesty International, a human rights watchdog, has urged people to write to authorities "calling on them to drop the false charges against Ramesh Agrawal and Dr Harihar Patel and release them immediately". A week ago, Agrawal and Patel were arrested in Raigarh based on a complaint filed by Jindal Power Limited. A...